Witnesses at a State House hearing suggest that fire inspectors are reluctant to interpret the code, tightened as a result of The Station fire.

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 8, 2004

BY MARK ARSENAULT
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- A year after the General Assembly overhauled the state fire code, many landlords and business owners still don't understand how the new law affects their properties -- or even if it will, several witnesses told a fire-code study commission yesterday.

"People don't know this stuff," said real-estate broker Vincent A. Marcello, of Newport. "They don't know it until it's too late. . . . There's going to be anarchy unless people are [made] aware of what's coming."

Fire Marshal Irving J. Owens said yesterday that his office is trying to do more to educate the public through the Fire Safety Code Board of Appeal and Review Web site (www.fsc.state.ri.us/) and in public information meetings. He is meeting with real-estate brokers this week, for example, he said. Hiring and training inspectors has taken precedence over training the public, which is the next priority, he said. "We need to do this in phases because we don't have hundreds of people available to do this."

A special legislative commission drafted the new fire laws after the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick. The fire killed 100 people.

State Rep. Joseph Trillo, R-Warwick, chairs the commission studying how the new laws are working. That panel is called the House Oversight Commission to Study the Ramifications of the Fire Safety Code.

Witnesses yesterday suggested that fire inspectors in the field have been reluctant to offer interpretations of the new law, and that regulations have been enforced inconsistently.

"I'm working under 39 different interpretations of the new fire code," said Ray Medley, regional sales manager for Telstar, a fireworks-display company.

Witnesses in past hearings have repeatedly complained about inconsistency, Trillo said in a statement. "Education is the key, and it appears to me we need to better educate local fire authorities about the law."

The new state fire law eliminated the grandfather clause that had exempted older buildings from modern fire codes. In place of the exemption, Rhode Island last year adopted the National Fire Protection Association's standards for new and existing buildings.

The new law also broadened the power of fire inspectors, banned indoor pyrotechnics in all but the largest venues, set out a schedule for more fire alarms, and called for mandatory sprinklers in many nightclubs. Nightclubs with a maximum occupancy of more than 300 people must install sprinklers by July 1, 2005. Nightclubs with occupancies of 150 to 300 have until July 1, 2006.

Marcello said many landlords "are very confused about the new laws," and that his office has had two real-estate sales fall through over concerns about the new requirements.

The House Corporations Committee is expected to hear today a bill to amend the fire code, mostly by deleting portions of the old law made obsolete by the adoption of the NFPA standards. The bill would also provide guidelines for fire inspectors to issue tickets for violations, and would include a specific exemption from the sprinkler requirement for assembly areas inside existing school buildings.