Businesses outraged over misinformation regarding fireboxes

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

At a time when downtown business is desperate in Strathmore, frustrations and emotions among business owners were escalating, when the town flip-flopped on the issue of fireboxes – shortly after numerous local businesses already footed the bill to install the equipment they say they were pressured to install.
The Strathmore Fire Department conducted a fire safety inspection report in early May, which stated a fire department lock box shall be installed and that failure to comply with the instructions of the report will result in a re-inspection, costing the owner another $175 plus taxes.
However, when some concerned business owners approached the town about the issue, they were informed the action wasn’t mandatory.
“I’ve been totally and completely scammed, the money is out of my pocket,” said Brian Code, owner of Strathmore’s Florist.
“Who’s protecting the small businesses in this town? If you’re like me you just do what you’re told, and you don’t really pay attention. We assume that the fire department is operating from an honourable position. There is nothing honourable about this at all.”
Code argued that he received the notice during his busy season and followed the fire department’s order, before realizing two months later, upon reading the fine print, that his business wasn’t obligated to install the $300-$400 box.
Attached to the inspection, Strathmore business owners received a list of 10 scenarios that would require for a key box to be installed. Such criteria included a locked fire alarm system, automatic sprinkler system, and locked access doors to a roof provided for firefighting purposes.
“I did all of [the instructions] because I didn’t know I had any choice,” Code said. “When I was in my office two months later I read it in detail and thought why did they do this to me? They list all the conditions who has to have it, I do not fit one of those criteria.”
According to a letter from the Town of Strathmore Fire Chief Muir Furzer, the emergency access-lockbox system allows police and emergency services to enter a facility quickly and safely during an emergency. The letter states that the property owner is required to purchase a lock box device. Furthermore, Furzer wrote: pursuant to Alberta Fire Code (AFC) I am advising you that effective immediately, all occupancies shall install lock box devices in compliance with code requirements outlined in section AFC 2.5.1.3.2. The letter continues saying that failure to comply may result in the building owner, occupier, or manager being charged under the Alberta Safety Code Act.
“There was a businessman that came to me about a month ago and he was very concerned, and he said ‘I’m not putting it on my building, forget it,'” said Dwight Stanford, chief administrative officer with the town. “I talked to the fire chief that time and he said we encourage it but it’s not mandatory. So anyway I never heard another word until last week, and then somebody got a hold of me with the same type of thing. So there’s been a few businesses mad and upset about it.”
But Councillor and local business owner Rocky Blokland doesn’t agree that the lockbox would allow for emergency crews to get into the building more quickly and argued that during an emergency situation it would cost him less for the fire department to break his front door and recoup the cost through insurance. Unlike Code, and many other business owners who complied with the report, Blokland refused to install the box and approached town administration on whether it was mandatory to install. However, over the last week, Blokland has been taken a lot of heat from local businesses about his actions and lack of information-sharing with his neighbours. Frustrated about the inspection and how the town has handled the situation, Blokland planned to bring the issue to council.
“There’s too much misinformation coming out, whether it should be done this way or that way or maybe it doesn’t have to be done that way or this way, and I wish they smarten up on that end,” said Blokland who added he hadn’t seen an inspection in his 15 years at the location. “I’m a little upset here because it’s not being handled properly by the town. There’s a difference between encouraging it and saying you’re required. And I’m not happy about how they did an inspection. I don’t know much about fire, but that wasn’t much of an inspection, and then you get a $50 bill for that.”
Code has submitted a letter to the town asking to be reimbursed for $444.28 it cost for the installation and purchase of the box, and adding the town failed to protect its businesses from unnecessary expenses at an extremely difficult economic time.
At the time when the Strathmore Times was in production, Rocky Blokland planned to address the issue with council on Aug. 19 and put forth a motion to try and reimburse the businesses.
“I’m going to put myself into a position on Wednesday where I’m probably going to talk against my administration,” Blokland said before Wednesday night. “But I feel, of my own mind, that I have to do the best I can as a councillor to straighten this out. Whether or not I’m going to get any support from the council or not, I don’t know.”