For the past year, I have been working as a Residential Unit Inspector for the Fire Prevention Division of the Santa Monica Fire Department. I brought twenty years of experience as a Fire-fighter/ Paramedic at the time I was promoted to Fire Inspector. I must say, serving the citizens of this town is an interesting and worthwhile experience for me.

I would like to say from the outset that I have never aspired to be a “bureaucrat”. In fact, I would describe myself as an “anti-bureaucrat bureaucrat”, which is not unique for a fire-fighter. Most of us are interested in achieving desired results with a minimum amount of impact upon any person in a way that can be done in the most economically efficient manner.

That being said, let’s talk about the need for me to write a series of articles on fire and life safety. I think the best way to demonstrate this need is to reiterate some of the comments I have received from various property owners and renters over the past year.

“Is this some new program?” Well, actually no. The Fire and Life Safety Inspection Program has been in effect in Santa Monica for longer than the twenty years I have been employed here. Where some confusion comes into play with regard to inspection of apartment and condominium build-ings has to do with the fact that, until about five years ago, they used to be inspected by those good people working out of the fire stations. The standard that dictated which buildings were subject to annual inspection has always been “three or more units under the same roof”. Somehow the words “three or more” became interpreted as “more than three”, which means “four or more”. This further evolved into “more than four” which is the same as “five or more”. Soooo… when a property owner tells me, “I have owned this building for more that thirty years and have never been inspected”, I can only reply, “You’re probably right about that and, congratulations on the free ride all those years”. It’s three or more. Incidentally, these buildings are now inspected by two Fire Inspectors assigned to the Residential Inspection Unit, who receive fire and life safety training specific to multi-family residential buildings.

“What gives you the authority to inspect my property?” Several things really, but the actual act that grants the Fire Department the authority to come onto your property for the purpose of looking for potential fire and life safety hazards is Title 19 of the California Code of Regulations (also known as the State Fire Marshal Regulations). Our authority is further granted by the Municipal Code of the City of Santa Monica. About every three years the City Council adopts the latest version of the Uniform Fire Code and the Uniform Building Code, which are the primary tools that Fire Inspectors use to interpret whether a hazard exists.

“What sort of things are you looking for?” More than just fire extinguishers. Actually, the checklist from our Fire and Life Safety Inspection Notice [found in the Members Only section] spells out exactly the kinds of things I look for while conducting an inspection. You can use this notice as a tool that identifies the list of items that I look for and to help you determine if your place is fire safe. As you can see, it covers every thing from address numbers to exits to electrical and general house keeping. Oh yeah, and fire extinguishers.

In the coming months, I will be writing additional articles in an effort to help educate property owners and our citizens about those issues which are near and dear to the Fire Department. I’ll get more into the inspection notice to help you understand why the standards exist. I’ll even talk about alternative measures you can take with some codes and still be in compliance. We’ll also discuss the Knox Box program and talk about “hoarders”. See you next month!