Saskatoon’s Fire Marshall says the onus to make sure the fire alarm system works is on the owner of any and all businesses where the alarm is required by the building code. Brian Conway says Hudson’s fire alarm system and emergency systems have been tested and the pub was back up and running by Monday afternoon, and reopened to patrons.

On Friday night, there was a fire on the roof of Hudsons due to tarring which had taken place earlier in the day. The fire department was called and could see smoke on the roof when they arrived but none of the patrons had been evacuated and the fire alarm system, according to the fire inspector, was not operational. Approximately 130 people were evacuated by fire crews and no one was hurt.

Brian Conway says the requirement for a fire alarm system is determined by the building code and it has to be tested by an authorized technician once a year. “At the moment they are in the information gathering stage and then we will see from there what’s required of them through the testing with the authorized technicians. And if everything is good then they can open again, but if everything is not good, to the point that it’s a life-safety issue, then we would not.”

Conway says the onus to make sure the fire alarm system works is on the owner of any and all businesses where the alarm is required by the building code. But he says another factor is training of the staff and whether they are knowledgeable regarding the protocol in event of a fire. He says if you ever have a fire, at home, or in the workplace and put it out with a fire extinguisher, you should still always call the fire department to make sure fire hasn’t spread and gotten into the walls, or somewhere unseen, until it is a much bigger problem.