NDP had good ideas about safety at seniors’ facilities; now’s the time for action

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on July 14, 2017.

It seems as though there is another fire blazing somewhere every day and whether it can be attributed to lightning, arson, terrorism or negligence it is equally devastating.

The Fort McMurray fire a year ago reminded us of the emotional and physical toll a fire brings. The Grenfell fire in an apartment block in London, England, makes you shudder with images of people at windows on upper floors desperately pleading and waiting to be rescued even as flames flashed nearer and thick black smoke billowed into apartments.

Seniors and those who are not independently mobile are particularly vulnerable. Even those who are mobile will take longer than a younger person would to use a stairwell and leave the building.

There is a lot we don’t know yet about the fire at The Gardens seniors’ complex in Lethbridge this week but according to media reports ordinary people off the street were the first on scene alerting residents. Some seniors had no idea a fire, believed to have started on a balcony, was engulfing the structure. Two members of the public took some seniors outside before firefighters arrived.

That 140 residents were evacuated without any deaths feels like a miracle. Of those who were rescued from the blaze 14 were injured.

After a situation such as this there is so much that could be learned and done to prevent a more tragic situation but little happens.

In 2014 a Quebec retirement home burned to the ground, killing more than 30 people, about half the residents. Most were dependent of caregivers, almost all in wheelchairs or using walkers, and some were in the late stages of Alzheimers, according to reports at the time. One resident had telephoned her grandson asking him to rescue her from her balcony. He tried with a ladder but she died on the balcony.

An official from the area, Michel Lagace, at the time, called it a “human tragedy” and the “worst possible circumstances” with a fire in the middle of the night and minimal staff on hand.

Provincial elected officials at the time called for measures to protect seniors.

“We need mandatory sprinklers, as well as strobe light alarms in all facilities, not just those four storeys or higher,” said the Alberta NDP infrastructure critic Deron Bilous in a press release dated Jan. 27, 2014

The NDP health critic at the time, David Eggen, who is education minister in the current government, called on the PC government to enact the strictest fire codes in the country for seniors’ facilities and to implement sufficient staffing levels on evenings and weekends to ensure safety for all seniors in care.

“We need to immediately look at staffing ratio levels for our seniors in care. We know there is not enough staff right now to provide adequate care, we certainly know that there cannot be enough staff to ensure seniors are evacuated safely,” said Eggen in the same press release.

What’s the old saying? Talk is cheap. Where is the action?

There has been very little coverage of the Lethbridge fire and that is probably because there were no deaths. We should not be waiting for a Quebec-style fire with multiple deaths. We should be doing everything possible to avoid that.

The NDP MLAs referred to above were strong advocates in 2014 and now they are in government where they can actually make the required changes, that is if they meant what they said in 2014.

(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to https://www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions or call her at 403-528-8635.)

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