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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSD-14-033 - Fire Inspections of all Care, Treatment & Retirment Facilities Staff Report I r finance and Corporate Services Department wvwuukitchenerra REPORT TO: Community and Infrastructure Services Committee DATE OF MEETING: April 28, 2014 SUBMITTED BY: Tim Beckett, Fire Chief, 519 741-2200 x 5500 PREPARED BY: Tim Beckett, Fire Chief, 519 741-2200 x 5500 WARD(S) INVOLVED: All DATE OF REPORT: April 16, 2014 REPORT NO.: CSD-14-033 SUBJECT: FIRE INSPECTIONS OF ALL CARE, TREATMENT AND RETIREMENT FACILITIES RECOMMENDATION: For information. BACKGROUND: Effective fire services require three lines of defence: (1) Public Education, (2) Fire Prevention and Code Enforcement, and (3) Fire Suppression activities. Over the past two years, the Ontario Fire Marshal has been advocating for a greater focus to be placed on Public Education and Fire Prevention Code Enforcement, also known as the first two lines of defence. With a greater focus on prevention and education, versus suppression operations, there is a greater likelihood to reduce fires before they start, therefore reducing fire losses within the community. To support this increased focus on education and prevention, in early 2014 the Ontario Fire Marshal issued three new directives to all fire departments in the province. Two of those directives relate to annual inspections, evacuation demonstrations, staffing evaluations and reporting to the Fire Marshal for all care, treatment and retirement facilities located in Kitchener. The resource impact of these new directives to the Kitchener Fire Department is compounded by changes to the Ontario Fire Code which were made in May 2013 and changed the parameters by which these care facilities are classified, in addition to introducing new retrofit provisions for them. Each of these changes are part of a large provincial initiative aimed at protecting vulnerable Ontarians housed in group homes, independent living arrangements, retirement homes, long term care facilities and hospitals. REPORT: Care Facility Inspections (2011 —2014) In early 2011, on the recommendation of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs (OAFC), the Kitchener Fire Department began assessing facilities housing vulnerable occupants across the city. This work was undertaken prior to the Fire Marshal's most recent directives in this regard IF2 - 1 which were put in place in early 2014. The OAFC's recommendation was the result of a retirement home fire in Orillia which killed four people and critically injured six others. A more recent fire at a seniors' home in L'Isle Verte, Quebec, killed 32 people and reinforced the need to become more proactive in assessing the ability of these facilities and their staff to respond to a fire emergency. Since 2011, one full-time Fire Inspector, assisted by up to five other inspectors, has been assigned to completing inspections of 90 care facilities identified for assessment within Kitchener. Given other competing priorities and a lack of dedicated inspection resources, to date those inspections have not yet been completed. In order to attempt to complete these care facility inspections with existing resources, the Kitchener Fire Department was forced to curtail other services such as inspections of buildings for real estate transactions, insurance or mortgage, and delay implementation of pro-active inspections of restaurants and other occupancies. Staff's experience in conducting these assessments in care facilities from 2011 until today has provided a solid background of information upon which to estimate the workload impacts of the Ontario Fire Marshal's 2014 directives related to these facilities. New Fire Marshal Directives re: Care Facilities (2014) In early 2014, the Ontario Fire Marshal issued three new directives related to inspections of all care, treatment and retirement facilities in the province: 1. The first new directive requires all fire departments in Ontario to file information within one month of completing any fire safety inspection on any care occupancy, care and treatment occupancy and retirement home. While this in itself does not create a huge demand on resources, responding to complaints and requests for inspection on these facilities will mean multiple filings of information even after a comprehensive annual inspection has been completed. On the positive side, these filings will result in a comprehensive, up-to-date database of vulnerable occupancies in Kitchener and across the province. 2. The second new directive from the Fire Marshal, which is the most labour intensive of the three new directives, requires all fire departments to complete the following work on an annual basis: • meet with the owner of all care, care and treatment and retirement home facilities to approve a realistic evacuation scenario; • observe and time a demonstration of said annual evacuation drill while comparing facility staff actions to the approved fire safety plan (this may require up to four Fire Department staff to complete); • conduct a comprehensive inspection of the entire care facility using a detailed checklist provided by the Fire Marshal; and, • ensure the fire safety plan for each facility has been reviewed and updated by the owner, and reviewed and re-approved by the Fire Department every time anything changes affecting the plan. IF2 - 2 It is important to note that all of these tasks must be completed for each care facility within the city on an annual basis. Any and all violations or deficiencies identified in any of the above processes must then by corrected by the facility owner and re-inspected by the Fire Department. 3. The third new directive from the Fire Marshal requires fire departments to provide fire safety assessments and inspections if necessary for all complaints and requests for assistance where the involvement of the Chief Fire Official is required (basically every place in the Fire Code where the word "approved" appears). This was formally only a guideline to be used by fire departments but is now a requirement of the Fire Marshal's Office. Kitchener Fire Department operating procedures already require provision of these services, so this directive does not have a significant impact on Fire Department resources in the City of Kitchener. However, this new Fire Marshal directive may have an impact on prioritization of work and work flow, and virtually eliminates the possibility of redeploying any staff already conducting this work to assist with the newly required inspections, evacuation drills and upgrading of occupancies housing vulnerable persons. Under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, a person is guilty of an offence if it refuses or neglects to obey or carry out the directives of the Fire Marshal. The penalty for a director or officer of a corporation is a fine up to $50,000 or imprisonment not more than one year. The corporation itself could be subject to a fine not more than $100,000. Although these new directives are very labour intensive (in particular #2), they do provide many benefits and an increased level of fire inspection service to ensure our most vulnerable populations in Kitchener are better protected. There are many occupants in care facilities that have mobility issues and, in the event of a fire, are at greater risk when trying to escape if the proper assistance or added protection is not provided. Ontario Fire Code Changes (2013) These new directives from the Fire Marshal are compounded by changes made to the Ontario Fire Code in May 2013. These changes amended the code by revising the definitions used to define occupancy types used to house vulnerable Ontarians and by adding a new retrofit section that applies to these occupancies. The most significant changes to the code in this regard include: sprinkler system installation in most of these occupancies, minimum staffing based on resident evacuation capabilities, additional compartmentalization to assist in horizontal evacuation, and a requirement to conduct a realistic evacuation scenario annually with the Fire Department invited to witness and approve. While some of the changes such as sprinklering can be phased in over a period of up to five years, the areas of inspection outlined in the Fire Marshal's directives came into effect immediately. While staff agrees these changes are both much needed and long overdue, the change in definitions and staff and resident evaluation methods has resulted in a need for the Fire Department to completely re-evaluate many of the facilities already assessed since 2011. This fact is further compounded by the need to inspect and retrofit all of the facilities that the new retrofit section in the Fire Code applies to, an extremely resource demanding task. IF2 - 3 Workload Analysis Staff currently estimates the building stock that may be affected by the changes to the Fire Code and the new directives of the Fire Marshal to be 63 small facilities, typically housing 10 or less persons (most classed as group homes) with a few with as many as 33 residents, 24 medium size facilities housing up to 100 persons, 9 large facilities with over 100 residents, 7 long term care facilities also large facilities, and 3 large hospitals. Utilizing experience gathered since 2011, staff has conducted an analysis of the workload required to complete and comply with the Fire Marshal's new directives regarding care facilities. Given these estimates are based on actual experience since 2011, staff is reasonably confident in the estimated average amount of staff time required to complete each related task. The following chart outlines staff's workload analysis to complete these new annual inspections and related activities. Annual Care Facility Fire Inspections: Workload Analysis TOTAL PER TOTAL OCCUPANCY NUMBER FACILITY (in SIZE/TYPE PREDICTED ACTIVITY(in hours) (in hours) hours) Fire Safety Pre- Plan & Inspection Evacuation Data Evaluation Inspections Drill Registry Small (up to 63 5.5 8.0 7.0 5.0 25.5 1606.5 35 residents) Medium (36 24 6.5 13.0 9.75 6.5 35.75 858.0 to 100 residents) Large (over 9 9.25 15.75 24.75 9.25 59.0 531.0 100 residents) Long Term 7 10.75 16.75 26.75 9.5 63.75 446.25 Care Facilities Hospitals 3 17.25 58.0 47.5 46.0 168.75 506.25 According to this analysis, staff estimate approximately 3,000 hours will be required on an annual basis to complete these care facility inspections. Assuming an individual staff member can achieve approximately 1,550 productive hours per year, staff project two staff members will need to be assigned to completing this new body of work. IF2 - 4 Reprioritization of Existing Staff In response to the changes to the Fire Code and these new directives from the Fire Marshal, the Kitchener Fire Department had three options to consider: 1. Request two new fire inspection FTEs; 2. Reprioritize existing staff to this high priority service area; or 3. Do not comply with the Fire Marshal's directives. Staff has canvassed several other Ontario fire departments and has learned that some have or will be recruiting new FTEs to assist in meeting these new care facility requirements. Others have identified that they do not have a large number of care facilities, compared to the numbers identified in Kitchener, and are therefore able to absorb this additional workload within existing staffing. After considering each of these three options, Kitchener staff has opted to reassign two existing FTEs (one from Public Education and one from Suppression) to complete these new care facility inspections. Staff believe this is a more effective use of existing resources and will result in a service level increase related to inspections of care facilities where many of the city's most vulnerable residents reside. Council should be aware that the reduction of one FTE from the Suppression Division has a minimal risk of increasing the number of times staffing drops below the department's minimum level of 37, requiring a suppression unit to be taken out of service. In 2013, staffing dropped below that level 34 times. Through the Fire Master Plan review which is currently underway, no significant impact to public safety has been identified when a suppression unit was removed from service those 34 times. Given the need to place an increased focus on fire education and prevention, and given our experience over the past two years with the suppression unit out of service, staff believes the reallocation of one suppression FTE to perform care facilities inspections is a viable option. In addition to this change, the Fire Department will be re-assigning a Public Education Officer to these care facility inspections and utilizing the fire suppression teams to conduct more public education programming in the community. While staff do not believe this change will have a material impact on service levels within the Suppression Division, and therefore do not require Council direction, given Council's previous interest in this topic and in the interest of transparency, staff is providing this report for information. ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN: Staff support the Fire Marshal's recent increased focus on the first two lines of defence within the fire service — education and prevention — and believe this change is an effective use of existing resources to increase the safety of care facility residents. IF2 - 5 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: The financial impact of this change will be approximately $9,000 in annual operating costs (salary and fringe), the difference between a Fire Prevention Officer's and a 1 St Class Fire Fighter's salary and benefits. These costs will be covered through a reduction in the Fire Department's annual contribution to gapping. If the position has to be filled externally, there is a chance the department will run over complement for a brief period of time, until there is a retirement from the Suppression Division. Staff anticipate we will see a retirement within the summer of 2014. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: In an effort to educate owners and operators of retirements homes, care facilities and care and treatment facilities located within the City of Kitchener, on January 16 and 24, 2014, the Kitchener Fire Department delivered two half-day information sessions. Invitations were sent to all known operators weeks in advance with approximately 60 accepting the invitation and attending. In this way stakeholders have been engaged, informed and entrusted to begin proactively complying with the new regulations. ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Michael May, Deputy CAO, Community Services IF2 - 6