Comply Or Die
Fire code violations can be expensive and threaten the safety of everyone in
the facility. Prepare for a visit from the fire marshal.
By Robert A. Neale
Facility managers may dread the idea of a fire safety inspection performed by the local fire marshal. The uncertainties of unplanned repair or maintenance costs, business interruption, or even protracted legal consequences make a visit from the fire department one that may seem unwelcome.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though. With a little understanding, communication, and cooperation among all parties, the fire marshal’s visit may be a positive professional experience.
Facility managers should know that the fire department shares the same interests as they do: making sure the facility remains operational, profitable, and safe for employees and visitors.
Why Inspect?
Despite how it may seem, the purpose of fire safety inspections is not solely to write up code violations. Well educated and well managed code enforcement personnel are concerned about identifying and correcting conditions that might cause or contribute to a fire or other hazardous incident.
The local jurisdiction has a compelling interest in maintaining the community’s infrastructure. Not only does the community benefit from a facility’s jobs, tax revenue, and overall economic value, it is important that the municipality be seen as financially and socially stable.
Although it’s hard to imagine today, several decades ago the Las Vegas tourism industry suffered a serious and long-term setback after two highly publicized hotel fires. In these incidents, more than 92 people died and another 679 were injured.
Furthermore, the local jurisdiction puts its firefighters in harm’s way to protect these properties, and fire marshals want to make sure their co-workers have an even chance to control the incident and return home safely.
Periodic maintenance to identify potential problems is important. This bird’s nest found in the fire sprinkler pipe would have resulted in a sprinkler system failure. PHOTO PROVIDED BY ROBERT NEALE.
Rights And Responsibilities
Building and fire codes represent the minimum standards a community is willing to accept to maintain life safety and fire protection. They must be adopted by the legislative authority and then have the force of law, just like the traffic code, nuisance code, or health and sanitation codes. As with these codes, the facility manager or property owner has certain rights and responsibilities under the law.
Protecting People And Property From Fire
By Chris Jelenewicz, P.E.
Each year in the U.S., more than 3,000 people die, 18,000 are injured, and $10 billion in property is damaged as a result of fire.* In addition to these direct tolls, there are indirect costs associated with things like business interruption.
For example, the One Meridian Plaza high-rise fire in Philadelphia that occurred in 1991 caused the building to be closed permanently. In 1988, the fire in the Interstate Bank Building in Los Angeles resulted in the building being out of commission for six months.**
Because a facility fire can have a drastic impact on both the operations and the quality of life of its occupants, protecting a facility from fire should be high on a manager’s radar screen. That is why many facility managers are using the services of fire protection engineers.
Using science and technology, fire protection engineers work with facility managers to safeguard people, property, and businesses from destructive fires. They analyze how buildings are used, how fires start, how fires grow, and how fire and smoke affect people, buildings, and property.
Additionally, they use the latest technologies to design systems that control fires, alert people to danger, and provide means for escape. They make recommendations for cost effective fire protection solutions to ensure the structure, property, and occupants are adequately protected.
In addition to being part of the design team for new and renovated facilities, fire protection engineers can assist the facility manager in ensuring that an existing building is safe from fire throughout the life of the building. For instance, most buildings have many fire protection systems that are part of an integrated life safety system. These systems can include: sprinkler systems, fire pumps, water supplies for water based fire suppression systems, special hazard extinguishing systems, fire detection and alarm systems, smoke management systems, means of egress systems, and passive building fire protection systems.
A fire protection engineer can assist the facility manager in designing and implementing a comprehensive fire protection management program to ensure these systems provide the desired level of life safety.
This management program can include establishing:
- Inspection and testing procedures. To ensure the reliable performance of a fire protection system, each system must be tested and maintained regularly. The fire protection engineer can provide advice to the facility manager on the required testing frequencies and procedures for these systems.
- Impairment procedures. There are times when a fire protection system may need to be shut down. This impairment may be the result of an unplanned occurrence or may be a planned outage for a repair. In this case, a fire protection engineer can develop a procedure for the facility manager that will ensure life safety will not be impacted during the impairment.
- Limitations of existing fire protection systems. All fire protection systems have design limitations. Without careful planning, a simple building alteration or an increase in fuel loading can result in a system failing to perform its life safety function. Facility managers often consult with fire protection engineers when planning building alterations or making a change to the fuel loading in a building to ensure system effectiveness is not compromised.
Moreover, there may be times when a facility manager or building owner may want to provide a level of life safety that is higher than compliance with the applicable building and fire codes provides. This is especially important when a building was designed to an older code or standard. Fire protection engineers can provide cost-effective recommendations so that valuable resources for life safety are used to their fullest potential.
Jelenewicz is engineering program manager for the Society of Fire Protection Engineers based in Bethesda, MD. He can be reached at cjelenewicz@sfpe.org. For more on SFPE, visit www.sfpe.org.
* National Fire Protection Association: Fire Loss in the United States During 2002.
** National Fire Protection Association: The total cost of fire in the United States (2003).
The fire marshal is granted the right under the law to inspect as often as may be necessary, during normal business hours, to perform life safety and fire protection inspections in commercial, industrial, institutional, educational, and assembly occupancies such as theaters, restaurants, and night clubs. Court rulings generally limit residential property inspections to those areas the tenants might use in common, such as lobbies and corridors, storage areas, mechanical spaces, and service areas.
The fire marshal should provide the facility manager ample notice of the time and date for the scheduled inspection, but some jurisdictions prefer a surprise inspection program.
The facility manager also has the right to refuse to let the fire marshal enter the premises; although the fire marshal often has injunctive recourse and may be able to obtain a search warrant to conduct the inspection. Refusing entry usually establishes a negative professional relationship among the principals that could have long-term consequences.
If the fire marshal identifies hazards or code violations, he or she is required to provide the facility manager or owner written documentation of the findings. The codes require that the property owner or tenant correct the violations within a reasonable time frame established during the inspection.
Often, the fire marshal will require urgent items be corrected right away and give the facility manager more time to address problems that may take additional funds or require changes to the physical plant. Generally, unless the property owner and building occupant have a separate agreement, repairs that become real estate are the owner’s responsibility, and repairs or changes that are portable are the occupant’s obligation to address.
If the facility manager or owner disagree with the fire marshals’ findings, they have the opportunity to appeal. Generally, the preferred administrative method is to contact the fire marshal first, then his or her supervisor, before requesting a formal appeal through the community’s appeal process that includes public hearings, testimony and, perhaps, eventual court rulings.
Who Is The AHJ?
Building and fire codes refer to the person who has enforcement authority as the “code official” or the “authority having jurisdiction” (AHJ). This is the person who is legally authorized or assigned to enforce the rules of the adopted codes.
The fire code enforcement official may be known by a different title, depending upon local laws and customs. There are as many titles and job descriptions as there are differences in communities.
In many jurisdictions, the fire code enforcement officer is known as the fire marshal, a traditional name that implies he or she has law enforcement powers. The fire marshal also may be known as the chief fire prevention officer, chief fire marshal, fire code official, fire code technician, fire prevention engineer, fire inspector, or a variation of those terms.
The fire marshal may be employed by the local fire department—as is the case in most cities—or he or she may work for a fire district, county, or state agency. The fire marshal may have moved into the code enforcement role from a career in fire suppression or may have been recruited as a non-uniformed employee.
The fire marshal may have had some formal training in building and fire codes, fire protection systems and equipment, documentation and legal aspects, hazardous materials operating and storage practices, or, as is often sadly the case, someone simply passed along a copy of the fire code and said, “You are now the fire marshal.”
Fire marshals then find themselves behind the learning curve and need all the help they can get. Unfortunately, when this occurs, fire marshals tend to fall back to the letter of the code rather than understand its intent and flexibility.
The fire marshal may work for the fire chief, the building official, zoning officer, code enforcement officer, agency director, governor, or other municipal or state official. In any case, the fire marshal usually has a supervisor with whom the facility manager can communicate to discuss issues if they can’t be resolved with the fire marshal.
