Yes, The Fire Department Has Veto Power Over Your Project [And How to Handle It]
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Yesterday marks the 113th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, a horrible [and completely preventable] tragedy where 146 workers died in a Greenwich Village garment factory. The workers were locked inside their workspace, from the outside, so they couldn’t take breaks - but it also meant that when the building caught fire, they couldn’t escape.
Following the fire, NYC passed many new laws and ordinances regarding exits, stairs, doors, locking mechanisms, presence of fire extinguishers, and the like, to prevent such an event from ever happening again - and many of our modern codes have their origins in these measures.
[I covered the link between the origins of modern building codes and the Triangle fire here, in another post.]
Today, though, I’d like to talk about another impact events like this one had on the way we build things: the influence that the fire department has on building projects.
Many new developers, architects, and GCs are surprised to learn that, in addition to going through the normal building permitting process, land use committees, design review boards, zoning hearings, etc, you also have to get through the fire department.
Depending on your jurisdiction, this can be quite a hurdle, and has stopped many a project in its tracks. In some cases, the local FD can just say “we don’t like this project” and…it won’t go forward. They have their own rules, and their own requirements, for projects, and there’s no way you’re getting around them.
We’ve had projects get killed, delayed, unable to open, etc because of fire department issues…so we’ve learned that it pays to be diligent, cooperative, and proactive with fire departments, as you’ll see below.
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