We completed a Fire Safety Plan Burnaby project for a 26-storey concrete residential high-rise on Halifax Street in August 2025. The building has 176 residential suites and 12 three-storey townhomes, two underground parkade levels, and a full suite of fire protection systems that had to be inventoried, documented, and mapped before the plan could be submitted to the Burnaby Fire Department for approval.
High-rise residential buildings are the most documentation-intensive fire safety plans we produce. This one is a good example of why.
In this article
- Why High-Rise Buildings Are a Different Category
- Building Overview
- Fire Alarm System
- Sprinkler and Standpipe Systems
- Emergency Generator and Fire Pump
- Elevators and Emergency Operation
- Exit Systems and Stairwells
- Communication Systems
- Fire Department Access and Connections
- Occupant Instructions and Floor Wardens
- Inspection and Reporting
- Approved by Burnaby Fire Department
- Does Your Building Need a Fire Safety Plan?
Why High-Rise Buildings Are a Different Category
A 26-storey building isn’t just a bigger version of a low-rise strata. The BC Fire Code treats high-rise residential buildings as their own category — with requirements around evacuation design, stairwell configuration, elevator recall, firefighter access systems, and communication infrastructure that simply don’t apply to a three-storey wood-frame building.
Under BC Fire Code Section 2.8, any building of this occupancy type requires a formal Fire Safety Plan approved by the local fire authority — in this case, the City of Burnaby Fire Department. The plan must reflect the building as it actually exists: current systems, current appointments, current floor layouts. An outdated or incomplete plan isn’t compliant, even if it was once approved.
For this building, producing a plan that would pass Burnaby Fire Department review meant documenting everything from a 350 KW emergency generator in the parkade to the precise crossover floor locations on a 26-storey scissor stair configuration. Here’s how it broke down.
Building Overview
This is a concrete high-rise built in 1999 — painted concrete exterior, drywall and steel stud interior construction, peaked metal roof. Twenty-six storeys above grade with two underground parkade levels.
The building’s layout by level:
- Parkade Level P2: Parking, storage rooms, main electrical room, telecom room, and emergency generator room
- Parkade Level P1: Parking, storage rooms, hobby room, sprinkler/pump room, sub-electrical room, and garbage room
- Level 1: Main lobby, common amenity room, gym, and residential suites
- Levels 2–24: Residential suites (Level 23 suites are two storeys)
- Levels 25–26: Boiler/mechanical room, elevator machine room, and attic space
Each zone has its own fire protection equipment, exit access considerations, and inspection requirements — all documented individually in the plan.
Fire Alarm System
The central alarm and control facility is a Simplex 4100 ES — a single-stage system. The main fire alarm panel is in the electrical room at Parkade Level P2. A graphic annunciator panel in the main residential lobby gives building staff an immediate visual read on which zone is triggering an alarm without going down to the parkade.
The system is monitored 24 hours by SMC Monitoring.
Initiating devices include pull stations, smoke detectors, heat detectors, fire pump activation, sprinkler flow and tamper switches, generator signals, and standpipe flow — fully integrated. When any device triggers, the Simplex 4100 ES captures the event, the annunciator lights up the zone, and the monitoring company is notified automatically.
The plan documents all three panel modes — normal, alarm, and trouble — with step-by-step operating instructions for each.
Sprinkler and Standpipe Systems
Two distinct sprinkler systems cover different zones.
The wet sprinkler system covers Level 1. Control and isolation valves are in the valve/pump room on Parkade Level P1, with an isolation valve in Stairwell 6 between Levels 1 and 2. Wet systems keep water continuously pressurized — faster response, appropriate for occupied interior spaces.
The dry sprinkler system covers the parkade levels. Dry systems use pressurized air to hold water back from the piping — standard for underground parkades where standing water in pipes can freeze. An air compressor maintains pipe pressure above the dry pipe valves. Both systems are monitored by the fire alarm.
A full standpipe system runs throughout the building, giving fire crews hose connections on every floor.
Emergency Generator and Fire Pump
When utility power fails in a high-rise, the life safety systems can’t go down with it.
The KatoLight diesel emergency generator is rated at 350 KW at 1800 RPM and is located in the generator room on the southeast corner of Parkade Level P2. It supplies emergency and exit lighting, both elevators, the fire alarm panel, key fob access controls, the fire pump, life safety fans, and parkade gates. The 2,200-litre diesel fuel tank is documented as a hazardous material — location specified so fire crews know exactly where it is before they go underground.
The Wilron fire pump is rated at 500 USGPM at 3,550 RPM and sits in the valve/pump room on Parkade Level P1. It receives emergency power directly from the generator, so water pressure to the sprinkler and standpipe systems holds regardless of what’s happening with the utility feed. The plan includes full controller operating instructions: placing in service, taking out of service, returning to automatic operation, and non-automatic start procedures.
Elevators and Emergency Operation
Two Northwest Elevators serve the building from Parkade Level P2 to Level 23, each rated at 2,500 lbs. Both are converted to firefighter service.
On fire alarm activation, both elevators automatically recall to Level 1 — Level 2 is the alternate recall floor. Fire crews then operate them independently using the in-car firefighter key switch, controlling door operation, floor selection, and hold functions manually.
The plan documents the full in-car emergency operation procedure: the two-step key switch sequence, door control behavior under emergency service, and how to return the elevator to normal operation. For a 26-storey building, firefighter elevator access isn’t optional — it’s how crews reach upper floors with equipment.
Exit Systems and Stairwells
Seven stairwells serve the building. Four connect from the parkade levels directly to the building exterior — one at each corner. Stairwells 6 and 7 are scissor stairs that alternate on each floor through the center core of the building.
Crossover floors — where occupants can transfer between stairwells — are at Levels 3, 8, 13, 18, and 23. If one stairwell becomes compromised by smoke, occupants have a predictable transfer point within five floors.
Level 1 exits: two main exits on the south side (main entrance) and three sets of double exit doors on the north side through the common amenity area. The four exterior parkade stairwells exit directly to grade.
All exit routes, stairwell assignments, and crossover floors are mapped on the floor plan drawings included with the plan.
Communication Systems
The public address system is integrated with the fire alarm and can address individual floors or the entire building simultaneously. In alarm mode, fire alarm bells silence automatically while a PA announcement is being made — occupants can hear evacuation instructions clearly.
A dedicated firefighters’ telephone network runs throughout the building. Fire crews use two-way handsets to communicate directly between the central control facility and any floor. The system operates as a party line — more than two parties can communicate simultaneously. This is a standard BC Fire Code requirement for high-rise buildings.
Fire Department Access and Connections
Fire trucks access the building via Halifax Street off Willingdon Avenue. The fire lane is rated for 70,000 lbs GVW.
The fire department siamese connection — a 2½″ auto sprinkler/standpipe connection — is adjacent to the driveway entrance. This is where fire crews connect to supplement water supply to the building’s sprinkler and standpipe systems under pressure.
Two fire department key boxes are documented: one exterior (mounted on the intercom pillar at the main entrance) and one interior (adjacent to the central alarm control facility). Key boxes give fire crews immediate access without forcing entry.
Two public fire hydrants are located on the north side of Halifax Street — southeast and southwest sides of the building.
Occupant Instructions and Floor Wardens
The plan assigns floor wardens for each level with specific duties: conducting floor sweeps, confirming evacuation, communicating with the Fire Safety Director, and assisting occupants who need help reaching exits.
Occupant instructions cover fire prevention, alarm response, and how to use the ABC multi-purpose dry chemical fire extinguishers located throughout the building.
An appendix addresses residents with disabilities — documenting who requires evacuation assistance and what the procedure is for ensuring they’re accounted for. In a 26-storey building with nearly 200 units, that section isn’t optional.
Inspection and Reporting
The BC Fire Code requires ongoing documentation. The plan includes ready-to-use log sheets for:
- Daily inspections
- Weekly inspections
- Monthly inspections
- Annual inspections
- Fire watch logs (required when any fire protection system is offline for maintenance)
- Fire drill records
Fire inspectors check these logs. Having them built into the plan — formatted and ready to use — means staff actually complete them.
Approved by Burnaby Fire Department
All changes and updates to this fire safety plan must be submitted to and approved by the Burnaby Fire Department before they take effect. That’s the requirement for every fire safety plan in Burnaby.
We handle the submission. After more than 20 years preparing plans for buildings across BC, we know what Burnaby Fire Department expects, and we write plans that get approved.
Does Your Burnaby High-Rise or Strata Need a Fire Safety Plan?
If your building is over three storeys, has a significant number of suites, or has received a notice from the Burnaby Fire Department — you need a current, approved fire safety plan. If yours hasn’t been updated since the last time a system changed, a contact moved on, or a renovation touched anything fire-related, it may not be compliant even if it was once approved.
We’ve handled fire safety plans across Burnaby — from small wood-frame stratas to concrete towers like this one. One flat fee. Approval guaranteed.
Related: How we handled a residential strata fire safety plan in Burnaby · Commercial mixed-use fire safety plan at HighGate Village on Kingsway
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, or learn more about how our fire safety plan service works.