Is there a duty on occupiers to install smoke detectors in a house where there is a fire?

Manitoba, Canada


The following excerpt is from Daniels v. McKelvey, 2010 MBQB 18 (CanLII):

I accept that a fire in a house is a reasonably foreseeable event and that there is a duty on occupiers to take reasonable steps to prevent those who enter their premises from being harmed by fire, whether that fire is caused by accident or the intentional act of third parties. I also accept that reasonable steps include installing smoke detectors. As Gerein J. said in Bueckert v. Mattison (1997), 1996 CanLII 6701 (SK QB), 149 Sask.R. 81, [1996] S.J. No. 660 (Q.B.)(QL), at par. 55, “A reasonable person could easily foresee that a failure to install a smoke detector could result in injury or even death.”

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