- Author
-
Silvestri, B.
- Title
- Rupert Hotel Fire, 182 Parliament Street, Toronto, Ontario, December 23, 1989. Fire Investigation Report.
- Coporate
- Office of the Fire Marshall, Canada
- Report
-
Fire Investigation Report
October 10, 1991
20 p.
- Keywords
-
fire investigations
|
hotels
|
fire fatalities
|
arson
|
fire spread
|
wooden structures
|
fire alarm systems
|
egress
|
response time
- Abstract
- At approximately 5:15 pm a fire was deliberately set in the Rupert Hotel, a rooming house located at 182 Parliament Street, Toronto. The building was 3-storeys in building height and contained approximately 30 rooms on the upper 2-storeys and a restaurant and two variety stores on the 1st floor. The fire was started on the 2nd floor and quickly spread through-out the 2nd and 3rd floors. The fire spread horizontally along the corridor wall panelling and was helped significantly by well ventilated conditions. The building was over a century old with wood lath construction and unfire-stopped concealed spaces and roof. Once the wood latch was exposed and the concealed spaces breached, the fire spread vertically to the roof and involved the entire building. The building fire alarm system did not function and as a result there was no early warning of the fire emergency. Fire fighting was delayed and their efforts hampered by a large number of overhead hydro wires on both Parliament and Queen Streets. The fire progressed to a 3-alarm situation causing extensive damage to the building and the deaths of ten residents. The fire damage to the building was so severe that it was unsafe to locate and recover all of the victims immediately after the fire was extinguished. It was not until the building was demolished, 6-days later that all of the bodies were recovered and the death tool determined. The following are factors which appear to have contributed to the loss of life and property: 1) the fire alarm did not operate; 2) rapid fire spread; 3) inadequate means of egress; 4) delay in response of fire fighters.