Relatives of residents at a government-run seniors home in Labrador say the province is putting their loved ones at risk because the home lacks a sprinkler system.

Karen Goudie worries about the risk of fire to her grandmother, 91, who lives at the Harry L. Paddon Memorial Home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Goudie's grandmother is blind and in a wheelchair.

Although Goudie said there are fire safety drills and the staff is well trained at the care home, she worries her grandmother could be left behind if there was a fire at the 48-bed facility.

"What systems are in place to maintain the safety in the absence of the sprinkler system?" Goudie said.

Firefighter George Way, whose mother is in the home, wants a sprinkler system installed immediately.

"There's a lot of other elderly people in wheelchairs," he said. "And I think that the staff would have their hands full if a fire should break out," he said.

Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones is accusing the provincial government of a double standard by cracking down on care homes that don't install sprinkler systems while exempting its own home in Labrador.

In the meantime, a personal care home in Labrador is being forced to close because it can't meet the province's deadline to install a sprinkler system.

The owners of the Pine Lodge personal care home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay said without help to pay the installation costs, the home's 16 residents will have to be moved to homes on the Labrador coast or to Newfoundland.

CBC News has discovered that the Paddon Home is just one of a growing list of government buildings with partial sprinkler systems or none at all:

• Charles S. Curtis Memorial hospital in St. Anthony has only a partial sprinkler system.
• Western Memorial in Corner Brook has 192 acute care beds and no sprinklers.
• Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones says there are no sprinklers in all the health centres on the Labrador coast from Forteau to Nain.
• Eastern Health says the buildings with partial or no sprinklers include the Bell Island Health Centre, parts of the Waterford Hospital, the upper floors of the Carbonear hospital, the addictions centre Access House and the Health Sciences hostel.

Central Health has not released any information on its sprinkler systems.