Fire Safety Plan White Rock

Who needs a fire safety plan in White Rock

White Rock is its own city with its own fire department. White Rock Fire Rescue, not Surrey Fire Service, inspects the buildings south of North Bluff Road, and a plan accepted in Surrey is not automatically on file in White Rock. The requirement itself comes from Section 2.8 of the BC Fire Code: every building with a fire alarm system, every assembly or care occupancy, every high building, and every building with sprinkler or standpipe systems needs a current fire safety plan on site. In a city of five square kilometres that still covers dozens of condominium towers, hundreds of low-rise stratas, the Marine Drive restaurant strip, the medical offices around Peace Arch Hospital, and every care home and church.

How White Rock Fire Rescue checks a plan

White Rock Fire Rescue is inspection-driven. Its Fire Prevention program carries out regular inspections enforcing the BC Building Code and BC Fire Code in all assembly, commercial, institutional, and multi-residential buildings, reviews every new building and renovation plan and development proposal, and conducts business-licence and pre-occupancy inspections. The fire safety plan is one of the first things an inspector asks for. What they expect to find:

• A current plan in the fire safety plan box at the main entrance, with the emergency contacts, service contractors, and supervisory staff matching the people actually running the building.
• A named Fire Safety Director and Deputy with appointment letters, trained in the plan before they take on the role.
• A complete fire protection inventory: alarm panel make and model, monitoring company and account, sprinkler and standpipe type and shut-offs, extinguishers, emergency lighting, gas and electrical shut-offs, and the elevator’s recall behaviour.
• Scaled CAD drawings for every level showing exits, equipment, fire department connections, assembly areas, and hazard rooms.
• Evacuation procedures for occupants and staff, including people who cannot use stairs, which matters in a city where a large share of residents are seniors.
• Fire drills at least once a year under BC Fire Code 2.8.3.2, with records kept in the plan.

White Rock does not publish a submission portal or fee schedule for fire safety plans; plans are reviewed through the Fire Prevention office and confirmed at inspection. We deal with the department directly so you do not have to.

The buildings we plan for in White Rock

White Rock packs an unusual building mix into a small area. Since 2003 we have prepared more than 1,000 fire safety plans across BC; our White Rock work runs to four types:

• Uptown concrete towers along North Bluff Road, Foster Street, Best Street, and Fir Street around Miramar Village and Semiahmoo Shopping Centre: twelve to twenty-five storeys with parkade levels, an emergency generator, standpipes, firefighter elevators, and a floor warden program, including several buildings still on their original 1990s alarm panels.
• Low-rise stratas and rental buildings on Victoria Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Fir Street, and the streets between Thrift Avenue and the hillside: three- and four-storey wood-frame buildings from the 1970s to 90s with 20 to 40 suites, a single-stage alarm, and an elevator that does not recall on alarm.
• The Marine Drive waterfront: restaurants with kitchen suppression, hotels, and mixed-use buildings with residential above retail, where the tenant plans and the base-building plan have to agree.
• Care homes, medical offices, and churches around Peace Arch Hospital and along Russell Avenue and Johnston Road, where the evacuation procedures for people needing assistance are the heart of the plan.

Our commercial fire safety plan page covers restaurants, retail, and offices in more depth. Buildings north of North Bluff Road are in Surrey; see our Surrey fire safety plan page for Surrey Fire Service’s process.

Keeping a White Rock plan current

Because White Rock enforces at inspection, the plan has to match the building on the day the inspector arrives. Update it whenever the Fire Safety Director, property manager, service contractors, or building systems change, run the annual drill, and keep the records in the box. Under the 2026 BC Fire Safety Act an out-of-date plan is an owner-liability issue, not a paperwork gap. Name and contact updates on plans we have written are free.

How it works with GetFirePlan

1. Firm quote in one business day, one flat fee. Our Surrey office is fifteen minutes away. See what a fire safety plan costs in BC.
2. Site visit to confirm exits, equipment, shut-offs, and layout, and to photograph every fire protection system.
3. Draft in 5–7 business days: CAD drawings and the full written plan, sent to you for review before anything goes to the department.
4. Submission to White Rock Fire Rescue, any revisions they request at no extra charge, and delivery of the accepted plan in print and PDF with wall plaques and a fire safety plan box if you need one.

Approval is guaranteed. If White Rock Fire Rescue rejects a plan we prepared, we revise it until it is accepted.

Frequently asked questions

We are on the White Rock side of North Bluff Road. Does Surrey’s process apply?
No. White Rock Fire Rescue is a separate department with its own inspectors. The Fire Code requirements are the same; the people reviewing the plan are not.

Our strata is mostly seniors. Does the plan have to address that?
Yes. The Fire Code requires procedures for occupants who need assistance to evacuate, and White Rock inspectors look for them. We build a persons-requiring-assistance list and procedure into every residential plan.

Our tower’s plan is from 2012. Is it still valid?
Only if every contact, contractor, and system in it is still accurate, which after fourteen years is unlikely. Most plans that age need a full rewrite to the 2024 BC Fire Code.

Does a restaurant on Marine Drive need its own plan?
Yes. The building’s plan covers shared systems; the restaurant needs a tenant plan covering kitchen suppression, exits, and staff procedures.

How do we get started?
Request a quote and we reply within one business day. Building or renovating? Our construction division at constructionfiresafetyplans.ca handles construction fire safety plans.