CUMBERLAND — Mayor Daniel J. McKee told a House oversight commission Monday afternoon that the state’s Fire Safety Code is not just impacting businesses, but also municipalities.

The law is not uniformly enforced and cities and towns must take on the costs for fire safety measures that are often unnecessary, McKee said.

The outspoken mayor said yesterday that he has met with Governor Carcieri’s policy advisers about the “exorbitant” fees that some local fire officials are charging to conduct state-mandated fire-code reviews on new constructions.

“Up to this point, the discussion about the fire codes at the state level has really been about its impact on businesses,” McKee said. “Now it is on the record that municipalities are suffering, too.”

McKee testified before the House Oversight Commission to Study the Ramifications of the Fire Safety Code at the State House in Providence. The General Assembly is looking to temper the fire code regulations, which were strengthened considerably after the Station nightclub fire in 2003.

The lone municipal administrator to testify Monday, McKee said that municipalities share many of the complaints of business owners, such as how the state enforces regulations.

He told the commission that the City of Providence was granted exemptions from the fire code to go forward with school renovation projects, but that Cumberland and other communities have not.

In December, the state Fire Safety Code Board rejected Cumberland’s request to install a “partial” sprinkler system in the high school, which is currently undergoing a multi-million-dollar renovation and expansion, rather than a much costlier “full” sprinkler system, McKee said.

“There needs to be a level of consistency from one community to another,” he said.

McKee and other municipal administrators have been complaining in recent months that mandated sprinkler systems are unnecessary in school buildings.

About a dozen city and town administrators, including McKee, have formed a coalition, called the Coalition of Communities Improving Rhode Island, to petition for, among other things, a repeal of the fire-code mandates as they pertain to municipal buildings.

“Sprinkler systems are installed to save buildings, not save lives,” he said.

State Rep. Joseph Trillo, R-Warwick, who co-chairs the House commission looking into state fire code regulations, agrees that there should be some leeway accorded to school buildings. Trillo said yesterday that there are no documented incidents of fire-related fatalities at school buildings in the state.

But he was hesitant to say that school and municipal buildings should be freed altogether from fire-code requirements. Trillo believes more school districts should seek exemptions from the state law by appealing to the state Fire Safety Code Board.

“Based on the physical size of these buildings and the number of people they hold, I think you need to hold schools to a tougher standard, but not 100 percent of what is required by them now” under the current regulations, he said. “Schools need to be assessed on an individual, case by case basis.”

pmarcelo@projo.com