1991 Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp (1991) reports
“In 1987, 277 people died in fires in one and two family dwellings across the
country – the vast majority of them in homes built before 1980….
In fact, since the total number of homes had grown, this represents a drop in
fire deaths to 4.5 per 100,000 homes in 1987 from 7.9 in 1980. There are a
number of reasons for this improvement in safety… but is generally agreed that
one major difference is the advent of inexpensive battery-operated and wired in
place smoke alarms.
New homes, which have been required by building codes to have mandatory wired in
smoke alarms since early in the 1980’s, are much safer (estimated 1.4 deaths per
100,000) than the general housing stock.”
1975 – Ontario homes required to have smoke alarms outside sleeping areas
1980 – Ontario fire death rate 30.8 per million population.
1990 – Statistics Canada survey reports 85% of homes have smoke alarms.
1990 – Ontario fire death rate 14.4 per million population.
1996 – Canadian Safety Council survey reports 95% of homes in Canada have smoke
alarms.
1996 – Ontario fire death rate 11.6 – down 62% from 1980.
2005 - Ontario fire death rate 6.9 – down 41% from 1996
March 2006 – smoke alarms required on all levels of dwellings in Ontario
Fire departments are asked to report on the presence and operation of smoke
alarms and suppression devices in every structure fire they attend.
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