Fire Safety Plan Burnaby: Residential Strata on Burlington Avenue

This past December, we completed a Fire Safety Plan Burnaby project for a 3-storey residential building on Burlington Avenue — a 24-suite wood-frame strata built in 1992 that had been operating without an up-to-date plan. The property management company reached out after receiving a notice from the Burnaby Fire Department, and we had the plan drafted, reviewed, and approved before year-end.

If you manage a residential strata in Burnaby and you’ve been putting off your fire safety plan, this is what the process looks like.

In this article

• Why This Burnaby Building Needed a Fire Safety Plan
• What Goes Into a Fire Safety Plan Burnaby Fire Department Will Approve
• Fire Safety Director Appointment
• Approved by Burnaby Fire Department
• Do You Need a Fire Safety Plan in Burnaby?

Why This Burnaby Building Needed a Fire Safety Plan

Burlington Avenue is a quiet residential street in Burnaby, and this building fits the profile we see most often for a Fire Safety Plan Burnaby request: a three-storey wood-frame structure with an underground parkade, built in the early 1990s, now managed by a strata corporation. Wood-frame buildings from that era are specifically flagged under the BC Fire Code because the construction type carries different risks than concrete — compartmentalization, fire spread, and exit access all factor into how the plan is structured.

The building has 24 residential suites across three floors, with the underground parkade housing the electrical room, sprinkler room, elevator equipment, storage lockers, laundry, and mechanical systems. That’s a lot going on below grade — and all of it has to be documented in the plan.

What Goes Into a Fire Safety Plan Burnaby Fire Department Will Approve

Every fire safety plan we prepare for Burnaby Fire Department includes the same core sections: building construction and occupancy details, full safety system documentation, Fire Safety Director appointment, emergency procedures, and the floor and site plan drawings showing exits, fire equipment locations, and fire department access routes.

For this building specifically, we documented:

• Fire alarm system — a Mircom single-stage panel located in the parkade electrical room, with an annunciator panel in the main entrance lobby. We documented normal, alarm, and trouble mode procedures so the Fire Safety Director knows exactly what to do when the panel activates.
• Sprinkler system — full coverage throughout the building, with service contact information and inspection checklists included in the plan.
• Emergency lighting — battery-powered units covering the stairwells, corridors, lobby, and all exit signs. Rated for 2 hours of operation, which is the BC Fire Code requirement.
• Fire extinguishers — locations mapped on the floor plans, with type, rating, and monthly/annual inspection requirements included.
• Fire department access — the parkade ramp access point on the southeast side of the building is identified, along with the fire department key box location and connection points for fire department use.
• Elevator — one Otis elevator serving all floors. Elevator recall procedures are documented for alarm response.
• Occupant instructions — fire prevention guidelines, extinguisher use instructions, and a section specifically addressing the needs of residents with disabilities.

Fire Safety Director Appointment

One requirement that often catches strata councils off guard is the Fire Safety Director appointment. Under BC Fire Code Section 2.8, every building requiring a fire safety plan must have a named Fire Safety Director and a deputy — individuals who are responsible for implementing the plan and who are trained to coordinate with Burnaby Fire Department in an emergency.

We include the Letter of Appointment directly in the plan, addressed to Burnaby Fire Department, with the effective date and contact information for both the Fire Safety Director and deputy. For this building, the strata had a property management company in place, and they coordinated the appointments as part of the plan setup.

Approved by Burnaby Fire Department

All fire safety plans in Burnaby must be submitted to and approved by the Burnaby Fire Department before they take effect. Any updates to the plan — new Fire Safety Director, changes to building systems, renovations that affect exits or fire equipment — also require fire department approval before they can be incorporated.

This plan was completed and approved in December 2025. The strata now has a current, compliant fire safety plan on file with the Burnaby Fire Department, and the property management company has a working document they can actually use.

Do You Need a Fire Safety Plan in Burnaby?

Under the BC Fire Code, most residential buildings three storeys or higher, or with more than a certain number of suites, are required to have a fire safety plan. Burnaby enforces this actively — the Burnaby Fire Department regularly sends notices to strata buildings and property managers whose plans are missing or outdated.

If you manage a strata building in Burnaby and you’re not sure whether your plan is current — or whether you have one at all — it’s worth finding out before the fire department does.

We handle the entire Fire Safety Plan Burnaby process: site visit, plan preparation, Fire Safety Director documentation, floor plan drawings, and submission to Burnaby Fire Department for approval. One flat fee. No chasing contractors for paperwork. We own the process start to finish.

Related case study: See how we handled a commercial mixed-use Fire Safety Plan Burnaby project at HighGate Village on Kingsway — a completely different building type, same city, same code requirements.

Also in Burnaby: See how we documented a 26-storey residential high-rise fire safety plan on Halifax Street — a completely different scale, same Burnaby Fire Department approval process.

Burnaby submission requirements: See what the City of Burnaby actually requires when submitting a fire safety plan — 4 PDFs, a 60-day deadline, mandatory key box, and pre-incident plan.

Contact us to get started with your Burnaby fire safety plan, or learn more about how our fire safety plan service works.