A decade after coroner Cyrille Delagé’s damning investigation report into the L’Isle-Verte fire, the number of residences for the elderly (RPA) equipped with a sprinkler system increased from 33% to 75% in Quebec.
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Of the 1,413 RPAs registered in the register of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), 1,004 are equipped with sprinklers and 56 are partially equipped.
According to the latest data from the MSSS, as of December 31, 2023, there were 353 RPAs not equipped with sprinklers in the province, of which 184 have fewer than 9 units.
This therefore means that of the 1,229 residences covered by the obligation to install sprinklers by December 2, 2024, 1,060 are equipped or about to be, which represents a rate of 86%.
“The majority of RPAs that have not yet been released represent small RPAs. The MSSS is very sensitive to the reality of small RPAs and wants to facilitate procedures for them and above all avoid closures,” indicates the MSSS Office.
Most of the residences contacted confirmed to Newspaper that they would comply with the requirements of the Régie du logement du Québec, including the Confort residence in Montreal, the largest non-sprinkled RPA with 145 units which is currently installing sprinklers.
Fire Services
In the conclusions of his 134-page report, Cyrille Delagé also attacked the groupings of fire prevention services which he considered too numerous.
“There is no valid reason for Quebec, which has a little more than 8 million inhabitants, to be served by a little more than 700 fire safety services,” he wrote. The coroner cited Ontario as an example, which served 13 million residents with just over 400 services.
The Ministry of Public Security (MSP) confirms that the number of services increased from 708 in 2014 to 622 last year, “in particular due to groupings […] which were encouraged and achieved.
Among the merged services, the municipality of L’Isle-Verte announced in March 2015 that it was entrusting the management and prevention operations of its fire department to the City of Rivière-du-Loup.
In his report, the coroner spoke at length about the training of firefighters. “We can no longer tolerate the lack of training and the ‘levelling down’,” he wrote on this subject.
Even though the requirements to become a firefighter are higher than in 2014, there is still a long way to go.
The Association of Fire and Civil Safety Managers of Quebec recently called for reform in the area.
The lack of training and the lack of funding were particularly targeted as problems by the Association, which prefers not to comment on this matter at present since it is in discussions with government authorities.
Fewer firefighters
According to the latest statistics, since 2020, the number of firefighters has fallen from 23,000 to 15,000 in 2022 and 70% of them are volunteer or part-time firefighters.
In seniors’ residences, the rules have been even stricter since 2014.
Rigorous evacuation exercises, higher requirements for employees and increased surveillance by the CIUSSS, there will have been “a big awareness,” says the president of the Quebec Association for the Rights of Retired Persons Pierre Lynch.
“Yes, older people are safer than before. There has been a lot of improvement,” confirms Gervais Darisse, president of the Fédération des NPOs en habitation du Bas-Saint-Laurent et de la Gaspésie-Les-îles.
The one who is also the manager of an RPA in Kamouraska is, however, very realistic.
“You know, evacuating dozens of elderly people, including some with walkers and reduced mobility in a few minutes, remains a very big challenge,” admits Mr. Darisse.
Source: Register of private residences for seniors, December 31, 2023. ■ The 184 non-squirted RPAs containing less than 9 units and which are covered by an exemption are part of the statistics.
With Jean-Philippe Guilbault and Dominique Lelièvre