March 12, 2026

The fire at Chartwell Carrington House in Mission, British Columbia, could easily have become a tragedy.

More than 140 residents were displaced, and several were treated for smoke inhalation, yet there has been no reported loss of life.

Sincere thanks to the staff of the residence and the firefighters and emergency responders who arrived on scene. Evacuating older residents during a fast-moving fire is extremely challenging. Many residents live with mobility limitations or other health conditions, and safely moving them out of a building requires training, calm judgment, and coordination. By all accounts, the staff and first responders did exactly that.

But there is another reason this fire did not become the kind of disaster we saw far too often, not so long ago.

Fire officials have confirmed that the building was equipped with mandatory, automatic sprinkler systems protecting the residential areas, which operated during the incident. The fire spread more rapidly only once it reached the attic space, where sprinklers are typically not installed.

Those protections did not appear overnight.

Many tragic fires in seniors’ residences across Canada and the United States resulted in devastating loss of life in the not-too-distant past. At one point, it seemed that there was one or more deadly fires in a seniors’ home every winter.

Those tragedies led to years of advocacy to strengthen building codes and fire protection requirements in seniors’ housing… specifically related to the additional time needed to evacuate.

CARP has been a leader in that advocacy. For many years, our volunteers and leaders pushed governments and regulators to recognize that seniors living in congregate housing require stronger protections, including sprinkler systems and modern fire safety standards. Those efforts helped drive the improvements that are now built into retirement and long-term care facilities across Canada. I want to specifically credit the work of  CARP’s past advocacy leads, the late Carol Libman and Susan Eng, for their leadership in delivering the required policy votes.

Without those changes, an event like the one in Mission could have looked very different.

CARP therefore recognizes not only the firefighters and staff who responded to this emergency, but also the architects, engineers, inspectors, and policymakers who implemented the safety standards that protect seniors today.

All of which was spearheaded by seniors themselves, who were devastated at seeing their peers perish in nursing home fires.

The lesson from Mission is clear: strong building codes and fire protections save lives.

CARP will continue to advocate for those protections as Canada’s population ages and more seniors live in retirement residences and other congregate housing.