The Manitoba government is proposing changes that would require new hog barns and other large farm buildings to meet building codes.
The move is a response to fires that killed 30,000 hogs across the province in 2008.
“Fires on farms pose a special threat because they are widely dispersed geographically and difficult to respond to in the event of an emergency,” Nancy Allan, the province’s labour and immigration minister, said in a statement.
The proposed amendment to provincial legislation will mean that farm buildings are no longer exempt from building codes. The change in the law will allow regulators to create a code for large, commercial farm buildings, said Douglas Popowich, Manitoba’s fire commissioner.
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“What the intent of the regulation is to include all buildings over 600 sq. metres that are involved in any type of agricultural process, whether it is growing, storing, processing or manufacturing,” he said.
The proposed change only applies to new buildings. Existing hog barns and other farm buildings will not have to comply, said Kevin Oman of the Office of the Fire Commissioner.
Asked if the regulation applies to machine shops on the farm, which a producer might use for welding, Popowich said yes, but only if the new shop is larger than 600 sq. metres.
“Yes, that’s manufacturing,” he said, adding that most shops would likely be exempt. “Six hundred sq. metres is a pretty big building. Typically, once they’re into that size of building it’s not just themselves.”
A fire near Zhoda, Man., in June killed 6,500 pigs. Another in May at a Hytek barn near Sarno, Man., destroyed 15,000 animals and in April, 8,700 hogs died at the Netley Hutterite Colony. In an average year in Manitoba, about 3,000 hogs die in fires.
In addition, an agricultural worker died this February when the roof of a vegetable processing shed collapsed in Portage la Prairie. Wet, heavy snow likely caused the roof failure, which injured several other workers.
According to Popowich, the Office of Fire Commissioner will initiate a consultation process for the proposed regulation in early May.
