Alberta Health Services (AHS) documents have revealed that the Sundre Hospital & Care Centre is one of many hospitals across the province that is not fully equipped with fire-suppression sprinklers.
More than 80 health-care facilities in Alberta are not equipped with sprinklers, and another 50 only have sprinklers in some areas – Sundre being one of them.
“Some parts of the hospital have them but it's not throughout,” said Larry Gratton, site manager at the Sundre hospital.
He believes it is because of the age of the building, which was built in 1968.
“When it was built they weren't required by code in the areas that it doesn't have them,” he said, adding he isn't sure if any upgrades have been made since it was built.
He said staff members at the hospital have plans in place and are prepared to handle emergency situations such as a fire.
“Just like any building there would be risk to residents and contents, but the thing to keep in mind is that there's staff here 24/7 that are up walking the floors attending to the patients and the residents of long-term care,” he said. “That in and of itself is a huge safety factor.”
He doesn't believe the hospital will be fully equipped with sprinklers in the near future.
“As a standard in all of our (AHS) facilities there is a procedure and a process for a code red, which is a fire alarm. We have evacuation plans and we have response plans for a potential fire,” he said. “So I'm not particularly worried. There's no immediate plans for renovations at this site.”
The AHS documents revealed that along with Sundre, health centres in Vegreville, Mundare, Bassano, Killam, Boyle, Edson, Whitecourt, Lac La Biche, Cardston, Breton and Lamont are not fully equipped with sprinklers.
It is reported that the documents were obtained under a freedom of information request, and the findings are a result of a fire earlier this year in a Quebec seniors' facility that killed 32 residents.
