The provincial government has announced changes to its building code intended to make new homes more energy efficient and safer for both occupants and emergency workers in case of fire.

Starting Oct. 1, 2008, all new homes must include heat detectors in attached garages that are directly wired into the home's smoke-alarm system.

Walls connecting attached garages to living spaces will also have to be rated fire-resistant. Manitoba will be the first Canadian jurisdiction to make that a requirement in new homes.

"Earlier detection and the barrier will … give people more time to get out of a structure and allow emergency crews to respond earlier once alarms are called in," Labour Minister Nancy Allan said in a release.

Alex Forrest, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, calls the changes "a living tribute" to two firefighters who lost their lives in a house fire in St. Boniface last February.

Captains Tom Nichols, 57, and Harold Lessard, 55, died and four other firefighters were injured last February when they were trapped on the second floor of a burning home in Winnipeg.

An investigation determined careless disposal of cigarettes started the fire in the home's attached garage. Before the fire department arrived, the fire had burned into the attic and the home's second-storey floor joists.

A report into the blaze recommended both the additional alarms and the fire-resistant wall requirements.

"These changes will make our jobs safer," he said. "With the number of attached garage fires that we fight every year, this is going to assist us."

Kevin Vann, chair of the Manitoba Homebuilders' Association, says the fire-safety features would add at least $2,000 to the construction cost of a new home — about $250 for the alarm, and the rest for fire-resistant common walls.

"The consumer's definitely going to be paying for some of this stuff, as they have with other code changes," he said.

The code changes will also require increased insulation or 'R' values for new home construction, in an effort to make new homes more energy efficient. Insulation that used to require an R12 rating will now have to be rated R20.

The changes are not retroactive; people who already own a home will have to decide if they wish to make the changes on their own.

Forrest said the city's firefighters will encourage homeowners to do so.