Most rooming houses fail fire inspection: WFPS

Nearly every Winnipeg rooming house visited by fire prevention officers in 2024 failed its initial inspection, a new report tabled by the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service shows.

The fire service inspected 141 rooming houses that year, finding just 27 per cent were in compliance with fire prevention bylaws, WFPS Chief Christian Schmidt told the city’s community service committee Friday.

“Those are relatively low compliance percentages, and speak to the importance of this work,” Schmidt said.

“The good news is, through the work of the inspection unit and the relationships that they have developed with property owners over time, the inspection compliance on second inspection rises dramatically.”

Compliance with fire prevention bylaws rose to 95 per cent when rooming houses were visited the second time, and compliance reached 100 per cent by the third inspection, Schmidt said.

In total, WFPS logged 348 infractions at rooming houses in 2024, down from 489 in 2023, and 396 in 2022. It is the lowest number of infractions recorded by WFPS since 2018, when inspectors identified 309 deficiencies, according to data compiled from previous reports.

On average, Winnipeg rooming houses are the source of 396 infractions annually.

The fire service began presenting infraction data in annual reports to city council in 2016, after a series of fires and fatalities within rooming houses, Schmidt said.

The dip in infractions recorded in the latest report “shows that the program is working,” Coun. Vivian Santos, chair of the community services committee, said.

“Before these reports were coming live, we always heard that these landlords don’t keep the heat on, or they don’t pay the water bill, and the water comes off, or there’s a devastating fire, and the alarms are not working. So making sure that City of Winnipeg, the fire prevention officers, are staying on top of it, it keeps the landlords accountable, and I think that’s ultimately the key,” she said.

Issues with fire alarm systems were the largest source of infractions in 2024, accounting for about 18 per cent of compliance issues. Deficiencies with smoke alarms came second, accounting for 14 per cent.

Improper maintenance of fire escapes, extinguishers and egresses collectively accounted for about 25 per cent of all infractions.

Meanwhile, the largest source of bylaw infractions unrelated to fire prevention was for garbage accumulation.

Community activist Sel Burrows — who has, for years, pushed to strengthen fire enforcement — described rooming houses as a “really important part of the housing structure in Winnipeg.”

However, they can quickly become hotbeds of crime, drug use and criminal activity if they are not closely monitored, he said.

It is in the best interest of property owners to keep control of who is living in their rooming houses, and to ensure they are compliant with fire prevention bylaws, he said.

“It doesn’t need to happen. A decent landlord, a well-run rooming house can keep safe,” he said.

Coun. Janice Lukes, who helped lead the effort to introduce annual rooming house infraction reports in 2016, agreed.

“It is really important to monitoring and keeping this data,” Lukes said. “When it comes forward in a report, the spotlight is on it.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca