Canadian group home fire where disabled woman died did not have adequate escape routes

From The Edmonton Sun in Canada:

A fatality inquiry into the death of a woman with Down syndrome who died in a 2007 house fire concluded window escape routes need to be equipped with ladders or sturdy furniture.

Marilyn May Lane lived in the basement of a group home at 10632 50 St. run by Independent Counselling Enterprises when a blaze broke out in April 2007, leaving her trapped in her suite.

The manager of the home told the inquiry that during monthly fire drills Lane had been able to hoist herself up and through the window.

"I have some doubts that a 43-year-old woman who was five feet tall, weighed 200 pounds and suffered from Down syndrome would be able to lift herself up to the window in question and exit that window near the ceiling of the room," Judge Harry Bridges wrote in the inquiry report.

However, he accepted that was the evidence put before the inquiry, he added.

The inquiry heard that the manager and a pair of passersby tried to coax Lane to open the window.

"She did stand up at one point and then sat down once again," the report said.

When firefighters were finally able to extinguish the flames blocking them from the basement, they discovered Lane dead on the floor.

It was later determined that she died of smoke inhalation.

An exact cause of the fire was never pinpointed, but the report said, "an undetermined open flame source" came into contact with "combustibles that were placed in the hallway located to the north of the basement stairwell."

"If the window near the ceiling is the route of escape, the inspections should ensure that there is a sturdy table or ladder underneath the window," Bridges wrote in the recommendation.

He also recommended all social- care facility operators apply for appropriate licences and ensure that fire and health inspections are carried out before the home is licensed.

The report said I.C.E. applied for a group home licence, but Alberta Family and Social Services said that the home did not require one.

It reasoned that it wasn't necessary because the home only had four tenants who were paying I.C.E. to rent out the house from another source, the report said.