Ten years after 32 people died in a fire that ripped through a residential complex for seniors in rural Quebec, around a quarter of all private seniors’ residences in the province are still struggling to comply with a requirement to install sprinkler systems.
The January 2014 fire at the Résidence du Havre in L'Isle-Verte, Que.—nearly 200 kilometres northeast of Quebec City—sent shock waves through the province. A subsequent investigation and 2015 report by the Quebec coroner’s office led the provincial government to mandate sprinklers in all seniors’ residences, with exceptions for institutions housing fewer than 10 people.
