Ottawa residents living in highrise apartments and condos have reason to pay close attention to a deeply troubling situation unfolding in Toronto, where fire has returned to a Thorncliffe Park highrise complex that previously burned for weeks — raising urgent questions about fire safety in Canada's older multi-unit towers.
Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg said he "cannot imagine the frustration" of residents after flames reignited at the same Thorncliffe Park complex that had already endured a weeks-long blaze. The building, like many of Toronto's — and Ottawa's — aging residential highrises, represents a generation of construction that predates modern fire suppression standards.
Ottawa's Highrise Reality
Ottawa is home to hundreds of highrise residential buildings, many of them concentrated in areas like Heron Gate, Alta Vista, Elmvale Acres, and along the Rideau River corridor. A significant portion of these towers were built in the 1960s and 1970s — the same era as the Thorncliffe Park complex — when sprinkler systems were not mandatory and fire compartmentalization standards were far less rigorous than today.
Ottawa Fire Services has worked in recent years to ensure older buildings meet updated fire code requirements, but advocacy groups and housing researchers have long flagged that enforcement is uneven and that retrofitting aging towers is expensive and slow.
What Renters Should Know
For Ottawa highrise residents, the Toronto situation is a reminder to take a few basic but critical steps:
- Know your evacuation route. Walk it. Don't wait for an emergency to find out how far the stairwell is from your unit.
- Check your smoke alarms. Building-installed alarms are the landlord's responsibility, but a personal battery-operated detector adds a layer of protection.
- Ask your building manager about sprinkler systems. Older Ottawa buildings may not have full sprinkler coverage — it's a fair question to raise with your landlord or property management company.
- Understand the "defend in place" vs. evacuate decision. Ottawa Fire Services recommends that in many highrise fires, staying in your unit with the door closed is safer than attempting to flee through smoke-filled hallways — but only if your unit is not directly threatened.
A National Conversation Worth Having
The Thorncliffe Park fire isn't just a Toronto problem. Across Canada, municipalities are grappling with aging rental stock that houses a disproportionate number of lower-income residents and seniors — the people least able to relocate quickly if a building becomes compromised.
Ottawa's housing pressures have made many of these older towers even more densely occupied than they were originally designed for. That's a combination — older fire infrastructure, higher occupancy — that emergency planners take seriously.
If you live in an Ottawa highrise and have concerns about fire safety, you can contact Ottawa Fire Services to request a building inspection or speak with your property management company about the building's sprinkler and alarm systems.
The Toronto fire chief's words — "I cannot imagine the frustration" — resonate beyond that city. For tenants anywhere in Canada watching their building burn twice, the frustration is the least of it.
Source: Global News Ottawa. Original story: Fire ignites at Toronto highrises that previously burned for weeks
