This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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The coroner’s inquest into the deadly fire at seniors’ residence that killed 32 people last January in L’Isle-Verte, Que., heard on Monday that the building complied with all fire-safety norms in the provincial building code. Technical advisor with the Quebec government’s Régie du batiment, Lise Veilleux, provided detailed explanation regarding the rules applicable to seniors’ residences and how they have been modified over the past 15 years.
Upon a straightforward inquiry by coroner Cyrille Delage, “in L’Isle-Verte, did it conform or not?” She replied that it did. Thereafter it was elucidated that since the building was built in 1997, the wing of the Résidence du Havre that burned was not required to have sprinklers and so the smoke detectors in residents’ rooms were also not connected to a central alarm system. The inquiry heard that an adjoining wing of the residence, built in 2003, was equipped with sprinklers and was separated by a firewall due to which it did not burn and its residents escaped the fire.
A veteran of inquests into fatal fires as old as 1969, Delage, expressed discomfort over the increase in the number of government committees and working groups that have generated a complex set of rules around fire safety. At one instance, he asked Ms. Veilleux if “aside from you, is there anyone who understands anything in these regulations?” Rivière-du-Loup courtroom will hear the inquest over the next two weeks. It was packed with almost 100 people mostly because of those who made the half-hour drive from L’Isle-Verte.
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