Fire Prevention Week: what your building's record says about fire safety
Ontario's new carbon monoxide alarm rules are in their first heating season, and Fire Prevention Week starts October 4. Here's what your landlord owes you — and which public records hint at how seriously a building takes safety.
Fire Prevention Week runs October 4–10, 2026, and this year's theme is lithium-ion battery safety — the e-bikes, scooters, and power banks charging in a lot of Toronto apartments. It also happens to be the first heating season under Ontario's updated carbon monoxide alarm rules, which took effect on January 1, 2026.
Both are good reasons to check two things: what's on your ceiling, and what's on your building's public record.
What changed on January 1
Under the updated Fire Code, if your home has a fuel-burning appliance, a fireplace, or an attached garage, a working CO alarm is now required on every storey — not just next to sleeping areas.
In an apartment or condo, CO alarms are required next to each sleeping area and on every storey of your unit if:
- your unit has a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace,
- your unit is directly above, below, or beside a service room or garage, or
- your unit is heated by air from a fuel-burning appliance elsewhere in the building.
Who's responsible: in a rental, the landlord must install smoke and CO alarms, keep them working, and give you the manufacturer's maintenance instructions. Your job is not to disable them and to tell the landlord promptly when one isn't working.
If your landlord won't provide working alarms, call 311 — you'll be referred to Toronto Fire Services and a fire inspector will attend. Penalties under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act go up to $50,000 and/or a year in jail for an individual, and $500,000 for a corporation.
What the RentSafeTO score can (and can't) tell you
A RentSafeTO evaluation isn't a fire inspection — Toronto Fire Services inspects separately. But a few of its categories track the maintenance habits that matter in a fire:
- Electrical safety plan and electrical services / outlets — is there a plan, and are common-area outlets and panels in good shape?
- Vital service plan — does the building have a plan for keeping heat, water, and power running?
- Stairwell lighting and stairwell landings and steps — your exit route.
- Garbage/compactor room and chute rooms — where a lot of building fires start.
A worked example: 650 Parliament St, a 22-storey, 568-unit tower in St. James Town. In August 2018 a fire in its basement electrical room forced hundreds of residents out of their homes. The City's record shows an Unsafe Order — "fire in electrical room in basement" — opened August 24, 2018 and not closed until August 26, 2021.
Its November 2025 evaluation scores 86/100, with 3/3 on the electrical safety plan, electrical services, vital service plan, and stairwell lighting. The weaker lines are elsewhere: chute rooms scored 1/3, stairwell walls and ceilings 1, and the garbage room 2. It has no open orders today, and 1 active bylaw investigation out of 32 since early 2024. (Data via PropertyMonitorTO, from the City's Apartment Building Evaluation and violations datasets.)
The takeaway isn't that 650 Parliament is unsafe. It's that the electrical lines are now clean, while the chute rooms, the kind of spot where trouble starts, are the ones to watch.
Beyond the score
- Orders — an Unsafe Order is the City's most serious flag. A closed one tells you something happened and was fixed; an open one is a reason to ask hard questions before you sign.
- Bylaw investigations — a steady stream of property-standards complaints suggests repairs don't happen until tenants push.
Your October checklist
- Press test on every smoke and CO alarm. They sound different — learn both.
- Check the date on the back. CO alarms have an end-of-life warning; don't mistake it for a low battery.
- Charge e-bikes and scooters away from your exit, never overnight unattended, and only with the charger that came with them.
- Report a missing or broken alarm to your landlord in writing, then 311.
Check your building
Search your address on the Building report card and look past the total to the electrical, stairwell, and chute-room lines. Then pull the orders record for any Unsafe Orders, open or closed. Monitor the address and a new order lands in your inbox.