The days of barbequing steaks on your apartment balcony could soon be coming to an end.

Surrey’s fire chief is calling for stricter rules. Len Garis says 10 per cent of apartment fires in the province start on balconies.

“The outside of the building isn’t necessarily designed to cope with fires on the outside. Storage on those balconies make it a greater risk. The risk comes from an ignition source, which might be [lit cigarettes] or a barbeque,” he explains.

Plans to deal with this has been put on hold by the Building and Safety Standards Branch and Garis says action needs to be taken now.

“The Province of British Columbia’s Building Standards Branch was going to facilitate a process last year, to look at these particular vulnerabilities, to help us design policy that would be consistent throughout the province… that’s where our focus is today… so the policy can be adopted.”

The policy could consist of sprinklers, heat detectors, or outright bans. Many stratas in BC already have balcony BBQ bans in place.