A fire safety plan is accurate on the day it is accepted. From then on, the building starts drifting away from it. Property managers change, a tenant knocks down a wall, the alarm company is replaced, a sprinkler zone gets added. None of those changes update the binder by themselves. We regularly open plans where the Fire Safety Director left years ago and the floor plans show a building that no longer exists. Here is when the BC Fire Code expects your plan to be reviewed or updated, and how to tell a quick fix from a rewrite.

The rule: review at least every 12 months

Article 2.8.2.1 of the BC Fire Code requires the fire safety plan to be reviewed at intervals not greater than 12 months to ensure it takes account of changes in the use and other characteristics of the building. Two points are worth noticing.

First, the requirement is to review, not to rewrite. If nothing has changed, the review confirms that and is recorded. Second, the test is whether the plan reflects the building’s current use and characteristics. A year-old plan for a building that changed last month already fails that test, even before the annual review comes due.

Some fire departments add their own triggers. Coquitlam Fire/Rescue, for example, requires a revised plan when a building is renovated, when it changes occupancy, or when ten years have passed since the previous submission, whichever comes first. Check your local department’s guidelines, which are often based on the Fire Prevention Officers’ Association of BC template.

What an annual review should cover

A proper annual review takes the plan off the shelf and checks it against the building. We recommend working through:

• supervisory staff: Fire Safety Director, deputy and wardens, with current phone numbers
• emergency contacts, including the property manager and after-hours contacts
• fire alarm, sprinkler, extinguisher and emergency lighting service providers
• fire protection systems: anything added, removed or changed since the last review
• floor plans and site plan against what is actually on site
• the list of persons requiring assistance
• fire drill records and inspection, testing and maintenance reports for the past year
• posted fire emergency procedures on each floor area

Date and sign the review and keep the record with the plan in the building.

Changes that mean an update now

Some changes cannot wait for the annual review because they make the plan wrong today.

Renovations and tenant improvements

If walls, exits, corridors or stairs move, the floor plans are no longer accurate. The BC Fire Code also says that where construction, alteration or demolition is carried out in an existing building that needs a fire safety plan, the plan must take account of the changes occurring to the building. In other words, the plan has to work during the renovation too, not only after it. Larger projects may need a separate construction fire safety plan; our construction fire safety plan checklist explains when.

New tenants or a change of use

A restaurant moving into a retail unit, a warehouse tenant storing a different commodity, a clinic opening in an office building, a daycare opening on the ground floor. Each of these can change the hazards, the occupant load, and in some cases whether additional plan content is required. For industrial buildings, storage classification, rack heights and sprinkler design criteria all belong in the plan.

Fire protection system changes

A new fire alarm panel, an added sprinkler zone, a replaced generator, a new fire department connection location or a smoke control upgrade all change the diagrams and the operating instructions in the plan. Fire crews rely on those pages to find and operate the equipment.

Changes in who is responsible

New property management company, new building manager, new strata council, new Fire Safety Director. The code requires supervisory staff to be trained in the plan’s procedures before they are given any fire safety responsibility, so a new person should be briefed and the plan updated at the same time.

New service providers

When your fire alarm or sprinkler contractor changes, the contact information in the plan should change with it.

Small update or full revision?

Here is how we usually explain the difference to clients.

Name and contact updates

Changes to the Fire Safety Director, deputy, property manager, or fire alarm, sprinkler and extinguisher service providers are page updates. For GetFirePlan clients, these name and contact changes are free. An outdated plan protects nobody, and we would rather keep yours current than have you put it off.

Revisions that change the drawings or the procedures

Renovations, new tenant layouts, new fire equipment, changes of use, and rewrites needed to meet a newer code edition change the drawings, the procedures or both. These are scoped and quoted as revision work, priced upfront before we start. Depending on the department, the revised plan may need to be resubmitted for acceptance.

What happens if you do not update

An out-of-date plan is one of the most common findings in a fire inspection. Under the Fire Safety Act, in force since August 1, 2024, an inspector who finds a contravention can issue an order with a compliance date, and ignored orders can lead to administrative penalties or prosecution. More importantly, a plan that sends firefighters to a stairwell that was walled off two years ago is worse than useless in a real fire. Our guide on what Vancouver Fire Rescue Services requires shows how seriously departments take accuracy.

A simple update calendar

• Every month: note any changes to people, contractors or equipment as they happen
• At every change of Fire Safety Director or property manager: update the supervisory staff page and brief the new person
• Before any renovation starts: check whether the plan needs to cover the work in progress
• Every 12 months at most: carry out and record a full review
• After any fire, alarm incident or inspection notice: review the plan against what happened

Frequently asked questions

Does the annual review have to be submitted to the fire department?

The BC Fire Code requires the review; it does not say every review must be resubmitted. Departments differ on when a revised plan must be submitted, so if the review leads to changes in drawings or procedures, check with your local fire department.

Who is responsible for keeping the plan up to date?

The BC Fire Code makes the owner or the owner’s authorized agent responsible for carrying out its provisions. In practice the Fire Safety Director or property manager usually tracks changes, but in a strata building the strata corporation remains accountable.

Can we update the plan ourselves?

You can record reviews and keep contacts current. Changes to drawings, procedures or system descriptions are best done by whoever prepared the plan, so the plan stays consistent and acceptable to the fire department.

Keep your plan as current as your building

GetFirePlan Fire Safety Inc. has written more than 1,000 BC fire safety plans since 2003, and many of our clients have been with us for years because we keep their plans current. Whether you need a quick name change or a full revision after a renovation in Richmond, Vancouver or anywhere in the Lower Mainland, we price it upfront and guarantee approval. Request a quote through our contact page or call (778) 574-2895.