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Fire Inspections
I was just curious how other F.D's handle fire inspections in their areas. Do you have a dedicated Fire Inspector, does your duty crew do inspections or both? How does your F.D. correct violations?
My F.D. has an Assistant Chief in charge of the Fire Prevention Bureau as well as each duty crew going out and performing inspections on a day to day basis.
I'd like to hear from both full time and volunteer F.D's on this one. I realize that full time F.D's have an advantage as far as manpower on a daily basis, but I'm curious how volunteer F.D's handle fire inspections.
My F.D. has an Assistant Chief in charge of the Fire Prevention Bureau as well as each duty crew going out and performing inspections on a day to day basis.
I'd like to hear from both full time and volunteer F.D's on this one. I realize that full time F.D's have an advantage as far as manpower on a daily basis, but I'm curious how volunteer F.D's handle fire inspections.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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We've got our chief that handles it now but he's starting teach some of the officers on how to do it too.
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Permalink Reply by Kimberly A Bownas on
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We don't do the inspections. In October we go to the schools and run a fire drill and then let the school know what we found as far as lights and doors being left open or locked. But we can only make suggestions. The schools are really good about taking what we found and fixing the problems. In our district there is someone that is employed by the village and the town that does the inspections I believe. It isn't one of our members at all.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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Just thought I'd revive this. This is the time of year when retail stores try to maximize their sales space. This means obstructed aisles, fire extinguishers and exits.
I was recently in a grocery store in my district and noticed that the fire extinguishers were expired and none of the exit lights was working. We had inspected this building around the beginning of the year, and the station on the north side of the district does it's shopping there. My point is that we've got to pay attention to these kinds of things at all times, not just when you're there to do the inspection. Think about how many times during the year the north side crews have shopped there, but because they're not there doing an inspection, they're not looking for hazards or violations.
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Permalink Reply by EngineLadder on
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We check hydrants twice a year. We do building inspections and home visits were we hand out free smoke detectores on saterdays or sunday.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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The problem with duty crews doing inspections is they do not know what they are looking at in context to the code. Most are not Fire Inspector 1 or 2 certified, and they start to say something is OK and then the owner will run with it. Then the inspector gets "Well so and so from your department said it was OK" I have seen some firefighters tell an occupant they can't do that, only to have the owner come down screaming that the fire department official, is wrong. Alot of times good standing business owners understand what is needed for their specific type of business and an overzealous firefighter who likes to hear himself speak can be a liability.
Therefore, we implemented and allow the duty crew to do a familiarization tour, this is good for preplanning, suppression concerns but if they find something of a code concern, the line officer is supposed to fill out a complaint form and turn it into fire prevention division. That department has an inspector that is (the AHJ) in charge of code compliancy and will follow up on the issue if needed.
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Less work for you thats good Chief, but town building inspectors are also collecting all the fee's for permitting as well.
Another funding source lost by the FD.
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I agree. We have our duty crews do the inspections. That being said, any violations and things are run past the Asst. Chief who is in charge of the Fire Prevention Division. He has the final say as th AHJ.
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Oh man, I've dealt with people from our Dept. of Education before. They knew NOTHING about fire safety and codes. One person wanted to have a Halon fire extinguisher next to every computer in the computer lab! (I should mention that they had about 30 computers in the computer lab) It took forever to talk some sense into him. He was ready to spend several thousand dollars for NO REASON whatsoever. I even had to let him read from my copy of NFPA 10. Finally got him to understand that the room just needed ONE 17lb. Halon fire extinguisher.
Some insurance people can be pains in the a$$ also.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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That is a good point, but if such issues were noted, it depends upon the inspection, inspector, and time frame.
We do inspections semi-annually and there is a push to go to annual for many places. We have come across issues while doing inspections and those issues are noted. In such a case if all exits lights were not working, extinguishers expired and so forth, then there is a question about when the inspection was done and what, if anything, was noted. (Right now my gut is saying this could have been a "drive-by" inspection)
I have noticed some issues myself around holidays etc, but if off duty, I may say something to a manager. If on duty, I would mention the issue to a manager, typically it is something like one exit light out (easy to miss if not looking for it) or where a display is put in front of an extinguisher, etc. Things like that are easy to fix. However, if coming across somewhere with no working exit lights, and extinguishers out of date...I would be checking back on the inspection records.
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We do have duty crews doing inspections. We stay in service and will respond to calls. The crews will do apartment complexes, small businesses, etc. The Fire Marshal division (comprised of 3) will check the large factories and schools.
If issues are found like cleanliness, extinguishers out of date, exit lights, etc, we inform the owner/mgr of the issue, note it and do a follow up inspection, usually a couple weeks later. If the issue is still there, we give a second warning, the third time, the issue(s) are written up and the fire marshal division does the follow up. Any major issues encountered, we would notify the fire marshal right away.
I disagree with not utilizing duty crews for inspections. Along with checking for issues, there is the chance to get into many places and get a general layout etc. Sure, crews can still go into many places later on, but doing inspections does help crews understand the importance of inspections and to recognize issues as well.
Training is an important aspect about doing inspections and for the most part, many of the issues can be touched on before crews go out for inspections. Meaning just stick with the basics, checking extinguishers, exit lights, clearances, smoke alarms, etc. If there are any issues regarding construction changes, etc, then issues are referred to the prevention division. I agree that someone who isn't certified should be making such statements about code if they really aren't sure, but really most places there are not issues, for those where there are, refer the inspection off to those who are in charge of inspections.
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You missed my point John. My point was that everything was probably groovy when they did the inspection, but the extinguishers expired sometime in the following months. Furthermore, since the duty crews at the north side station (Station 1) do their grocery shopping here regularly, they should have noticed this, instead of having tunnel vision.
Anytime you go into a building or business as a firefighter, (except during emergency situations), you should be in inspection mode. I don't care if you only do inspections twice a year, if you go into that building, pay attention, a violation or fire hazard isn't going to wait for your next inspection.
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That's pretty much the way we do it here. I'd also like to add that we also use any new information to update our preplans.
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