ORN THE ONLY SOURCE FOR PROFESSIONAL ICI ROOFING CONTRACTORS IN ONTARIO   ONTARIO ROOFING NEWS – FALL 2018  17 After 15 years of service to your industry, here are some facts for you to consider: •  ICI roofing contractors are still considered a very high risk business to liability insurers. •  Insurers are once again withdrawing from ICI roofing as an industry. •  Twelve or 13 calls from insurance brokers does not mean there is a widely available marketplace for ICI roofing liability insurance. In fact, the demand curve is very high. With a few exceptions, it has everything to do with broker commissions and absolutely nothing to do with a large group of interested insurers. •  There is no guarantee that there will always be liability insurance available to ICI roofing contractors; insurers are not mandated to insure ICI roofers. •  ICI roofers collectively are not profitable to liability insurers. ICI roofing contractors almost entirely lost their insurance marketplace in 2001 and you paid dearly to preserve it. Once again in 2018 the insurance marketplace has shrunk considerably for your business class. It is time for the ICI roofing industry to help preserve what insurance marketplace remains available by aggressively taking risk management under its control; this includes attending to fire as the central most important and problematic risk. Let’s allow Benjamin Franklin to chime in for a moment: “In the first place, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I would advise ‘em to take care how they suffer living coals in a full shovel, to be carried out of one room into another, or up or down stairs, unless in a warming pan shut; for scraps of fire may fall into chinks and make no appearance until midnight; when your stairs being in flames, you may be forced, to leap out of your windows, and hazard your necks to avoid being oven-roasted.” Franklin stressed that the “method” of carrying coals was dangerous. Collins English Dictionary defines a “chink in a surface” as “a very narrow crack or opening in it.” Franklin seemed fully aware of the importance of safe handling of hot substances and even seemed aware that an ember falling in a crack may emerge as a fire much later in the night. Remarkably, the risk concerns surrounding what you do as roofing contractors, particularly when torching, or using an asphalt kettle, luggers and mops, literally dates back to at least 1736. Unfortunately, many of the same issues and concerns surrounding fire were identified and are still a problem 282 years later. The danger of fire has been known for centuries, perhaps the most notable being the Great Fire of London in September 1666, which started in a bakery in Pudding Lane and literally gutted the old city, destroying St. Paul’s Cathedral in its hostile path. Needless to say, how buildings were constructed and fire prevention measures became much more important to Londoners following the Great Fire. Mr. Franklin added: “Soon after it [a fire] is seen and cry’d out, the place is crowded by active men of different ages, professions and titles who, as of one mind and rank, apply themselves with all vigilance and resolution, according to their abilities, to the hard work of conquering the increasing fire.” Franklin, having been in other cities that were better prepared, recommended “a club or society of active men belonging to each fire engine, whose business is to attend all fires with it whenever they happen.” The process was adopted and Philadelphia’s firefighters became more effective with good training and organization; the Union Fire Company was established on December 7, 1736: “...leather buckets, with strong bags and baskets, were brought to every fire. The blaze battlers met monthly to talk about fire prevention and firefighting methods. Homeowners were mandated to have leather firefighting buckets in their houses” and public education about fire also began. Today the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office in a similar manner is instrumental in discussing fire prevention with homeowners, businesses and associations, including the OIRCA. Of course their equipment is state of the art compared to 1736 and the “blaze battlers” are better protected today. Nonetheless, these individuals are still willing to place their own lives at risk, often due to someone else’s negligence. Do we not have a responsibility to do every single thing we can to make the life of a firefighter as boring as the life of the fictional Maytag repairman? Franklin actually opened the first insurance company for home insurance in 1752 so he was an insurance colleague of ours! He probably also saw that through risk management and loss prevention, he could earn a great deal of money. Any company that adopts risk management has a better chance at expanding its own profit margin. What is going wrong in the ICI roofing industry? Not much has changed; fires have plagued the ICI roofing industry in Canada since well before 2000. In Ontario even after the Ontario Fire Code changes came into effect in January 2015, the fires continued to occur, and across Canada roofing-related fires continue to occur. For example, it is possible that an increasingly expensive fire in Montreal on July 13, 2018 at the Bell Media Tower may have been caused by roofing work; also, it is possible that a fire at Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture, Cox Institute on June 20, 2018 may have been caused by roofing work. If so, to the extent that liability insurance is available, these two singular events, combined with many other roofing accidents that have occurred and will occur, today accumulate mostly in one insurance marketplace: Lloyd’s of London. It’s fascinating that it is the world’s oldest insurance exchange that was around in There is an urgent need for the ICI roofing industry to universally implement risk management in order to ensure the future availability of liability insurance. �� ���������� ���� �������� �������� ��� ��� ���� ���-���-���� ���� ���-���-���� ������ ������������������������� ��������������������� ����� ������ ��� - PMI Programs - Metal Roof Systems - Emergency Services - Roof Top Decks - Modified Bitumen - Waterproofing - Roof Anchors - Sheet Metal �������� �� ������� ������� � ������� ��� ���� �� ����� �������� ����� ������ � ������� - Built Up Systems - Restoration - Single Ply - Inverted ���������� ���������� ����������� ������ �������� ���������� ���������� ����������� ������ �������� Commercial and Residential Roofing Trinity Roofing Ltd. specializes in a variety of roofing applications and waterproofing for residential, commercial and institutional buildings. Phone: 416-630-9213 Fax: 416-630-1722 URL: www.trinitycanada.com Email: info@trinitycanada.com Building Science Consultants roof + building envelope consulting • Roofing • Windows and Doors • Masonry and Wall Cladding • Ladder and Anchor Evaluations • Building Envelope • Asphalt and Concrete • Underground Parking Garage • Engineering Services www.tssbuildingscience.com info@tssbuildingscience.com Phone: 905 642 0489 1 866 544 3129 AATO B&CRAO CRCA CSC OACETT OBEC OIRCA PEO RCI SWA TCA TSS BUILDING SCIENCE INC.