Newfoundland and Labrador's fire commissioner has ordered 22 personal care homes to close next month because they failed to install sprinklers.

Of the 121 personal care homes in Newfoundland and Labrador, 99 have complied with safety orders.
(CBC)

The orders issued Thursday will take effect during the week of March 10, Municipal Affairs Minister Dave Denine said.

"This has come to the point that we just couldn't continue on any longer," Denine told reporters in Corner Brook, where the provincial cabinet has been meeting.

"The timeframe has come and gone when this should be done…. This has to be moved forward for life safety issues."

The 22 homes, which look after 290 individuals, have four weeks to prove they will comply with orders that were first issued in 2003.

Those orders had a two-year expiry, although the government responded to industry concerns about the costs of installation with a one-time subsidy of up to $75,000 per home.

Affected home	Location
Cradea Manor	Mount Pearl
Island Manor	Bell Island
Kelly's Personal Care Home	Goulds
Murphy's Shady Rest Lodge	St. Philip's
Laura Porter's Community Care Home	Kelligrews
Brigus Personal Care Home	Brigus
Eason's Personal Care Home	Holyrood
Gosse's Personal Care Home	Spaniard's Bay
Lewis' Personal Care Home	Riverhead
Neville's Special Care Home	St. Mary's
Pond View Manor	Shearstown
Riverside Country Manor	Mount Carmel
Smith's Country Villa	Shearstown
Winter Holme Manor	Winterton
Woodford's Golden Care Home	Holyrood
Greenwood Rest Home	Musgravetown
Carmanville Terrace	Carmanville
Deer Lake Manor	Deer Lake
Hilliard's Personal Care Home	Cape Anguille
Malcolm Piercey Memorial	Deer Lake
Pine Lodge Personal Care Home	Happy Valley-Goose Bay

Dozens of the 121 personal care homes in the province took advantage of the offer, although only 99 now comply with the 2003 orders. One home closed, the government said.

Denine, who said the subsidy offer is still on the table, said Thursday's decision amounts to a compliance order, not a closure.

"[But] we just can't continue on saying, 'We hope you comply, we hope you comply.' There has to be a line drawn somewhere, and this is it," Denine said.

Denine said many of the residents of the homes, who are usually seniors and the disabled, would require help escaping from a fire.

The issue of fire safety has a resonance in Newfoundland and Labrador, where many people still remember with horror a St. John's-area fire on Boxing Day, 1976, that killed 21 residents of a privately operated nursing home.

A Dec. 26, 1976, fire at the Chafe's nursing home outside St. John's killed 21 people.
(CBC)

In 2006, Auditor General John Noseworthy criticized the provincial government for being lax in monitoring safety at personal care homes.

The announcement Thursday involved a co-ordinated effort between different levels of government. Minutes after Denine announced the new orders, Health Minister Ross Wiseman said regional health authorities are working on a plan to accommodate any residents who may be displaced.

"We are in fact going to want to work with them to ensure that they have an alternate place to go, should the home that they are currently in not be able to comply with the order," Wiseman said.

"That's where the focus has really shifted now."

Wiseman acknowledged, though, that some of the personal care homes are the only ones of their kind in their respective communities.