Concerns raised about alarms before deadly fire

Some residents of a Caledonia apartment building where two people died in a fire are raising concerns about the actions of the fire department.  They also say the fire alarm was not loud enough.

Mary Churchill lived just a few doors down from where the fire started on June 14th. She says it was her son that got the family to safety that night, not the fire department: “When he woke up, there was a haze in his room and he thought something was going on in our apartment. Then he went to the living room and found smoke and said we need to get out of here.”

She’s questioning why firefighters didn’t immediately evacuate the building. Fire department manager Rob Grimwood says there’s a reason they don’t evacuate in a situation like this: “A building like this is designed to keep the fire in the unit of origin. Our firefighters pre-planned this building. Our main goal is to get control of the fire and then vent the hallways and stairwell. One of the things we noticed is that people said they went from smoke in their apartment to thick black smoke in the hallway and that’s why we don’t evacuate them.”

Donna and Gerald Lapierre died in the fire. Donna had worked with Mary at the the Collobria Cafe for a year. Mary says they were more than just co-workers — they were friends.

Some residents are also raising concerns about the alarm system in this building. It’s a two-tier system with individual alarms in the units and a central system in the hallway. It’s the one in the hallway residents say they couldn’t hear on the night of the fire.

“It was like a faint tinkerbell.”

“The fire alarms were not loud enough — your not going to hear it if you’re asleep.”

The building manager declined to comment. The fire department says the alarms were recently tested and found to be working properly. But in light of the concerns raised today, they say the loudness will be re-tested.

Damage is estimated to be approximately $250,000. The office of the Ontario Fire Marshal says preliminary investigation shows the fire may have started in the living room of unit 304. There’s no word yet on the cause.