The house where three people died in a fire on Saturday was not zoned or licenced to be used as a lodging home.

Located near Kenilworth Avenue and Beach Road, 191 Grenfell was operating as a lodging home or rooming house, with five residents, including the property owner. Only two were related, a mother-daughter pair who were tenants in the home.

A home with four or more tenants requires a lodging home licence.

Three of the tenants at Grenfell were killed when the house went up in flames on Saturday night, making 2016 the worst year for local fire deaths in the city in a decade.

CBC Hamilton has learned the house was targeted for a zoning inspection twice over the past dozen years, but the city was unable to complete an inquiry.

Ann Lamanes, a communications officer for the City of Hamilton told the CBC Tuesday that the home did not have zoning that matched how it was being used.

"The property is zoned 'D' (urban protected residential permitting 1-2 family occupancy,)" Lamanes said in an email.

It was reported to the city twice in three years as violating bylaws, she said.

"An officer was sent out to investigate claims [once in 2004 and once in 2007] that the property was operating as an illegal rooming house."

Lamanes said the owner was told at the time of the 2004 visit that he needed a lodging house license for four or more tenants.

"He would have had to go through a whole process to do that," she said.

The owner apparently told the investigator that he was going to cut down to three tenants, which would be allowed under the zoning he had, and would not require a licence, she said.

"We took him at his word and the file was closed," said Lamanes.

When the home was targeted again for investigation in 2007, "the owner and tenants were not co-operative and they all refused entry to staff."

Following that, the file was closed.

At the time of the fire, there were four occupants in addition to the landlord.

'Nothing else we can do'

Lamanes said the inspection process is based on receiving complaints. The city will get a complaint about a residence and send out a bylaw officer.

The bylaw officer sent to investigate "has to be able to physically get inside of the home" in order to determine whether any bylaws are being violated. But if the officer is refused entry the officer will try to gather secondary evidence, she said.

"If there are cases where staff cannot gain entry, officers try a number of ways to prove illegal use; but, in some cases it can be very difficult to get a charge laid," said Lamanes.

"191 Grenfell was one of the unfortunate cases where the file was closed because we were not able to gather the sufficient evidence."

The Ontario Fire Marshal is still investigating the cause of Saturday's fire 191 Grenfell Street. Crews found a smoke alarm on the scene, but it's not clear yet if it was working at the time of the fire

A representative said Monday afternoon that the fire originated from inside a room, not from the exterior or inside the walls. They do not consider it suspicious, and estimated the on-site investigation would conclude by Tuesday morning.

Various neighbours, friends, and family members of the victims have said the house's occupants were its owner and four tenants.

They identified the survivors as the landlord and one of the tenants. On Monday, several members of the landlord's family told CBC News he was still in intensive care.

Recourse for fire safety investigations

On Sunday, the Hamilton Fire Department released an appeal to the public urging people to adopt better fire safety practices, especially around the use of smoke alarms. Eleven people in Hamilton have been killed by fires, all of them house fires, in 2016, which is a sharp rise from last year's death toll of five.

Hamilton Fire Chief David Cunliffe said the early warning you can give yourself from smoke alarms is "crucial to your survival."

The fire department's Sunday notice was also promoting the fact that homeowners with physical or financial limitations can call the fire department to install detectors for free. Renters, on the other hand, must rely on their landlords to install and maintain proper alarms and exits.

But tenants are not powerless: they can report inadequate fire safety to the fire department, which will send an investigator.

The fire inspector has recourse if the owner won't let them in.

"Under the FPA (Fire Protection Act,) we can go after a warrant to go in there," said Claudio Mostacci, spokesperson for Hamilton Fire. "If we're denied entry, we can inform people that we can get a warrant."

Mostacci would not give a typical timeframe for acquiring the warrant, saying that it can vary depending on a lot of factors, but said that "we try to do it as quickly as possible."

Did the Hamilton Fire Department ever receive such a complaint about the burned house on Grenfell Street?

"All I can say is," Mostacci said, "Hamilton Fire Department has had no contact with 191 Grenfell."

dave.beatty@cbc.ca | @dbeatty