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motel fire alarm out of order

B

BSSTG

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
729
Location
Seadrift, Tx.
Greetings all,

I have received a red tag report on a local motel that their fire alarm panel is out of order. I became aware of this last week when the alarm company notified me by phone. I have since received written confirmation and another call stating the owners have not taken any action thus far for repairs.

I am going to issue a notice of violation per IFC 09. At the same time I feel it would be prudent to put notices on all building entrances that the system is out of order.

Would that be sufficient? going overboard? or not going far enough? There is no fire marshall here. I am merely a fire inspector but nonetheless the fire code official.

thanks a bunch

BS
 
There are a lot of unkowns here. Is the building sprinklered? Do the sleeping rooms have direct exits to the outside or is there a central corridor. The level of action would be dependant upon the other mitigations in the building.
 
lightning strike took out the panel I am told. sounds like the bldg owners are dragging their feet on replacement but here you go, they are foreigners, may not even be around. turnaround time to repair is 24 hours.

BS
 
901.7 Systems out of Service. Where a required fire protection system is out of service, the fire department and the fire code official shall be notified immediately and, where required by the fire code official, the building shall be either vacated or an approved fire watch shall be provided for all occupants left unprotected by the shutdown until the fire protection system has been returned to service.
 
Make sure the sprinkler valves are locked open if the supervision through the fire alarm system is out.

You could make them put battery smokes in the rooms until the system is back in service if there are no smokes in the units due to the outage.

Fire watch not a bad idea.
 
If they have to pay for a fire watch they will be more inclined to make repairs. If they decline, post it as unihabitable and the income stream dries up. Don't let it hang on you for non-response.
 
Been down this trail very recently. Posting signs at all entrances is not over board. But if it would go really bad (fire, dead people) there may be some liability at this point. Send a registered letter stating the facts, a short term solution (i.e. fire watch) and a drop dead date to evacuate / vacate the building or have the alarm system repaired, inspected and approved and stick to it. Hum... I wonder who that "family" might be? Bet I can guess.
 
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Can you write citations ??

If so give them requirement to fix by certain date and require fire watch
 
If they go the fire watch route, make sure they keep a log and make sure to stop by at least twice a day. The only duty of the fire watch person is to perform fire watch, not the janitor, maid, desk person, etc.
 
citation was issued. fire watches until tomorrow keeping logs etc. system to be repaired pm tomorrow. the building owner just called. he's been thrrouh this before.

thanks for all of the help folks. this was new territory for me

BS
 
Excellent. Good work. Compliance is the goal. We all may have different opinions / suggestions on how to get there but at the end of the day compliance minimum life safety is the goal!
 
Just went through this, but with a sprinkler system. Wet system was OK, but teh dry system was off line w/lots of rust holes in the pipe. FM put them on 15 minute fire watch until repairs were made and inspected. I was wanting to get paid for work done 7 months prior, before doing more. After a few days of fire watch, visits twice a week from the state FM, I got paid. Then we fixed the leaks. And of course, we passed the inspection.

Stick to your guns, do hte right thing. Require the system to be repaired. Last FACP we replaced only took 3 days freight and 1 day labor. The problem was the chargeing circuit. Our temp repair was to supply 2 extra batteries and a charger. When the panel beeped "low battery", the nursing home replaced the batteries themselves. the low batteries were charged and waiting to be exchanged. Easy sollution.
 
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