In the wake of another fatal rooming-house fire, a call for more inspections

The death of two people in a North PointDouglas roominghouse fire has renewed attention on how often the dwellings are inspected.

The head of Winnipeg'sfirefighters union said he's concerned the city doesnot employenough fire inspectors to make annualvisits to all of theknown rooming houses.

Two city councillors, meanwhile, want rooming houses inspected every year for general liveability.

The fatalities occurred early Thursday morning in a licensed rooming house on Austin Street North. TheWinnipeg Fire Paramedic Serviceconducted a full inspection of the property in November 2013 and deemed it in full compliance during a follow-up visit in February 2014, city spokeswoman Michelle Finley.

• 2 die in rooming house fire in Winnipeg's North Point Douglas

While the fire paramedic service is not required to inspect rooming houses everyyear, it started making an effort to do so anyway in 2015,Finleysaid. There were 645 licensed rooming houses in Winnipeg as of June 15, she said.

United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg president AlexForrestsaid he's concerned city does not havethe resources to determine whether fire-safety standards are being upheld in all of the licensed rooming houses, let alone what he estimated to be hundreds of unlicensed dwellings.

Firefighters often roll up to fires expecting to enter a single-family home but then encounter a dwelling for multiple people, he said.

"The number of these rooming houses and the deadly nature of the fires within these houses [is]really starting to be startling. We're getting a tremendous amount of deaths, a tremendous amount of injuries," Forrest told CBC Manitoba's Radio Noon.

"The fire last night on Austin [Street] is a classic situation," he said. "It's a single-family dwelling and it's been turned into a rooming house, and there were upwards of 15 individuals that lived in this particular rooming house."

Finley noted the dwelling in question was in fact licensed. She encouraged Winnipeggers to report any concerns about unsafe rooming houses by calling or emailing 311.

"All addresses that are reported by the public as potentially being unsafe will be followed-up on and inspected," Finley said in a statement.

Building inspections also needed: councillors

Meanwhile,two city councillorshavelaunched aneffort to haveWinnipeg rooming houses inspected for more than just fire-safety considerations.

On Monday,Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie and South Winnipeg-St. Norbert Coun. Janice Lukeswill ask council's protection committee to approve a motion to have the city "undertake whatever it must do" to ensure building inspectors visit rooming houses once per year to make sure they comply with all aspects of the city's Neighbourhood Livability Bylaw.

The councillors wrote their motion before this morning's fatal house fire in North Point Douglas.

In the motion, they state while "many rooming houses [are] kept in livable condition by the owners," some do not meet the livability criteria laid out by the city bylaw.

"Due to the lack of affordable housing options, many rooming house residents are afraid to make complaints about unlivable conditions in their rooming houses, because they do not want to get kicked out on to the street," they write.

Eadiesits on the protection committee, along with councillorsMike Pagtakhan(Point Douglas), Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan) and Russ Wyatt (Transcona).

Eadie said it's important all aspects of a rooming house are inspected along with fire safety.

"When you're doing a fire inspection of a home, you need to also ensure the rest of the house is OK," he said in an interview. "If you're having people doing inspections every year, it gives the people living here the impression that there's great concern around thisand that people are living together appropriately."

Lukes, meanwhile,has been waging a campaign to root out illegal rooming houses near the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus, which is in her ward.

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"I do understand completelythat people are hesitant to maybe make some neighbourhood-liveability complaints regarding some of the bylaws because they live in a place that's affordable. They don't want to get kicked out," she said. "It's a very challenging situation."