TORONTO - The Ontario government must set aside partisan politics in favour of common sense and ban wooden fire escapes on residential buildings, the New Democrats said Thursday.

A private member's bill introduced by Michael Prue is his third attempt to rewrite the fire code and implement two recommendations of an inquest into a fatal fire in Toronto in 1999.

Two people were killed after a fire tore through an apartment and destroyed the building's wood fire escape.

"The firefighters could hear the victims' screams, and yet with all of their training and with all of their courage, they could do nothing,'' Prue said.

"I think this has to be obvious to everyone, that to have a wooden fire escape on the outside of a wooden building is tantamount to asking for disaster.''

Buildings with wooden fire escapes typically house low-income families, students and others who are powerless to demand better safety practices in their homes, Prue said.

The bill would also require that all apartment buildings be equipped with fire detectors in all public corridors and common areas, and have interconnected alarms that ring throughout the building in the case of a major fire.

The fire code amendments in his bill have been implemented around the world and Ontario has no reason not to follow suit, he added.

"It is still common practice in some of the jurisdictions in Canada, but ought not to be.''

Private member's bills rarely become law in Ontario, although Prue's bill -- which passed second reading Thursday without any dissent -- has received expressions of support from both the Progressive Conservatives and the governing Liberals.

Prue's previous attempts at getting his bill passed in 2005 and 2006 were supported by the likes of the Ontario Municipal Fire Prevention Officers' Association, the Toronto Fire Service, and the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, but the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association said it could not endorse the bill in its entirety.

Executive vice-president Brian George said he supported mandating interconnected smoke alarms in apartment buildings, although he thought the bill could otherwise use another focus.

"There were certain parts of it we agreed with, and any changes to make buildings or premises safer for occupancy we're obviously in favour of that, but there's certain issues that we thought should've been looked at in a different way,'' George said.

Many organizations that commented on the bill said requiring sprinkler systems in residential buildings should be a priority, and George added that making sure buildings have proper windows that are fire and heat resistant would protect any fire escape, even those made of wood.

But Thomas Steers, whose fiancee Linda Elderkin died in the Toronto fire in 1999, told a government committee last year that he hopes the bill will pass to prevent another tragedy.

"I'd also hope that no one would go through the experience that I did, the pain being made all the worse because I know that the death was preventable,'' he said.

"I've spoken with the firemen who tried to save Linda that night and they told me no one should have died in that fire. So little could have made so much of a difference.''