Bureau of Fire and Protection

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Definition of terms

Building: A structure that is used or intended to be used for the location of a defined occupancy classification.

Commercial Occupancy: A building that serves as the physical location for a business operation. This classification would exclude the single-family dwelling.

Facility: A building or location that has a defined use or purpose. A facility is not limited to a physical structure but can include open yards and spaces.

Incident: The request for emergency services, as used in this paper, an incident shall mean a request for fire suppression services. Multi-family: A building or structure that houses more than two families such as apartments and townhouses. Multi-tenant: A building or structure that serves as the location for more than one commercial occupancy. Occupants: Individuals that inhabit, work, or otherwise populate a building or structure. Individuals shopping or purchasing merchandise are considered occupants. 13 Occupancy Classification: A system of categorizing the tenable space within a building based upon the intended use and associated risk. Occupancy Load: A method of calculating the total number of occupants that can safely occupy a building or portion of a building. Operations: A division within the fire department responsible for emergency services such as firefighting. Operations personnel: Individuals assigned to the operations division, and are part of the emergency response to include firefighting duties. Party Wall: A separating wall that serves to divide two tenantable occupancies for the purpose of separating the business operation, and does not have a defined fire rating. Prevention: A division within the fire department responsible for conducting fire inspections in order to reduce or eliminate the threat of fire. Public Way: May consist of a street, alley, or sidewalk that is within the open air leading directly to a street that has been otherwise deed to the public for public use.

Regionalized Fire Protection: A fire department that provides fire protection services within a geographic area that often encompasses multiple jurisdictional boundaries. Tenant: Shall mean either a business or individual that shall occupy a given location or space in a facility

- LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature presented by topical category The following literature review is a collection of the current state of knowledge regarding fire department inspections. A series of studies conducted during the early to mid-70’s concerning the importance of fire prevention. This review will identify program success and challenges along with related information used to support the claim that the act of performing fire inspections within the commercial occupancy can reduce the occurrence of fires. The subsequent literature review topics were selected in order to fully capture the essential elements of performing a fire inspection. Fire service functions In the research conducted by Hall, et al., (1979) the findings support the thought that cities should consider using fire suppression personnel to assist in achieving the objective of inspecting all identified properties annually. The research concluded that cities using fire suppression personnel appeared to have substantially lower fire rates than cities that exclusively used full-time inspectors. The assumption of supplementing fulltime inspectors with suppression personnel is based upon the supposition that typically there are not enough prevention personnel to perform the required number of annual inspections within a given jurisdiction. The study conducted by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Urban Institute (UI), selected eleven (11) large U.S. cities representing a wide range of inspection practices whereupon detailed information on inspection practices was collected. 18 In the findings by Royse, (2007) research showed that the City of Wichita, Kansas experienced an increase in the frequency and severity of commercial fires when suppression personnel were no longer performing inspections. The applied research project submitted to the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer Program evaluated commercial occupancy fire inspections in the City of Wichita, Kansas. Priorities within the Wichita Fire Department ended the practice of suppression personnel performing fire inspections within the commercial occupancy. Royse (2007) goes on to explain that, "changes in the operations division priorities deemed commercial occupancy fire inspections were a non-priority activity." Descriptive and historical research methods were used to analyze the relationship between the increase in commercial structure fires and the last inspection performed. In his report, Werner, (2003) found the need for fire suppression personnel to perform fire inspections was established as a result of an inspection caseload that was too great for the number of full time inspectors. Furthermore, when fire suppression personnel performed fire inspections, an increased public image was recognized as well as improved professionalism for fire suppression personnel. The study, an applied research project for the National Fire Academy (NFA) Executive Fire Officer (EFO) program, used action research to answer the question concerning the need for fire suppression personnel to conduct fire code inspections. In his study, Jee, (1999) showed that fire departments that supplement fire prevention bureau inspections with suppression personnel have fewer fires, lower fire losses, and fewer civilian casualties within properties regulated by fire codes, when compared to cities which do not utilize fire suppression personnel. The research study 19 conducted for a NFA EFO research paper and utilized the action research methodology to establish the most effective means of performing inspections. Inspection measurement methodology In the study performed by Schaenman, Hall, Schainblatt, Swartz, & Karter, (1977) examination revealed that, "the ability to identify "relatively preventable" fires depends on the fire-cause categories used, and the reliability with which those causes are identified and recorded" (Schaenman et al., 1977, p. xvii). The joint study performed by the Urban Institute and the National Fire Protection Association found that documenting fires that are considered preventable, is a function of designing fire-cause reporting categories with that purpose in mind. It would be useful to report whether the cause of a fire could be seen or otherwise identified during a fire inspection. In the report by Schaenman and Swartz, (1974) research found the measurement of productivity focused on the two principal functions of the fire department, fire prevention and