Code Attorney

When there is a business in town that is a problem for the police, there’s an excellent chance that it’s also a place with fire and building code violations.  In Petersburg, VA a man was shot at a business where the  occupancy of the building was 100 more persons than it should have been.   http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/local-news/2010/nov/30/pete30-ar-683770/ In the 2 years the business was open, it was cited 9 times for violations of the fire, safety and building codes.  Many of the violations were for overcrowding.  When I teach my class on the relationship between code enforcement and law enforcement, I explore how effective enforcement of the building and fire codes can reduce crime.  My next class is January 7, 2011 at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Il.  Many of these crimes can be prevented by being vigilant in our enforcement of fire code regulations, especially at entertainment venues.

It’s hard to believe that the MGM fire took place 30 years ago today.  My husband and I actually stayed at the hotel prior to the fire and had no idea how unsafe the building was.  There’s a very good article about the problems that caused the loss of 85 lives at http://commandsafety.com/2010/11/1980-mgm-grand-hotel-fire-thirty-years-ago/ When local government officials are debating whether to require fire sprinklers, they need to be reminded about what can happen when they are not present in a high rise.

A landlord in Ontario, Canada recently pleaded guilty to fire code violations in connection with a fire that occurred in an apartment building. http://www.mykawartha.com/news/news/article/905196 What caught my attention in the article that discussed the case was a statement that landlords can be held liable if any occupant is injured in a fire because the building is not compliant with the fire code.  This is true in the United States, as well.  Owners run a risk when they do not fix code violations because if someone is injured or killed, there is very good chance the owner will get sued for negligence.  Sometimes when a law colleague is pursuing a personal injury suit, I’ll get a call from him or her asking for help in understanding how building and fire codes work.  Usually, I can find something in the code that covers a violation that led to the injury.    Good landlords don’t take risks and try to avoid problems so they don’t end up on the other end of a lawsuit.

I was recently at the Ravinia Festival, an outdoor park for music with my daughter.  She bought me tickets to see a band and we were having a good time but then the singer urged the security guards at the entrances to the pavilion (where we were sitting) to let in people sitting on the lawn. The young ticket takers didn’t know what to do and patrons (who had been drinking) began to pour into the pavilion, filling up the aisles and the front of the stage. I turned to my daughter and said that the fire marshall wouldn’t like this.   There was no way we would have been able to leave with this throng of people.  It was also a hot, humid 90’s degree night.  Thankfully there were only a few songs left until the end of the program and the band left the stage.  The crowd cried for an encore but eventually some guy came out and had to be the bad guy, telling people without tickets for the pavilion they had to leave or the show couldn’t continue.  By that time, police officers had arrived to oversee the exodus from the pavilion.  The band eventually came back out but the singer decried the killing of rock and roll by not allowing people to be spontaneous and enjoy themselves.  He later made mention that he knew the fire marshall was just doing his job but I was appalled by the ignorance of the danger involved in that type of setting.  It did show how quickly a venue like that can respond to a threat and I have to give credit to the fire marshall for acting so fast in what could have been a volatile situation.  My daughter’s plan to drag me behind the huge speakers a the edge of the stage if things got ugly never had to be implemented.

My husband and I had a wonderful time in Japan but I couldn’t ignore some interesting differences.  We stayed at a Japanese inn that was part of a Buddhist Temple up in the mountains one night.  It was a typical Japanese accomodation with tatami mats, futons to sleep on and a low table.  Our host showed us how to stay warm with the space heaters and a futon around the table.  I’m posting a picture to see how it looked.  Kerosene heaters are widespread as very few homes have central heating.  There is also a heater under the table so you can wrap yourself in the futon and stay warm.  This is quite common but one of the fire inspectors I showed the picture to was taken aback.

Japanese inn

We also visited many temples and shrines.  Our guides told us that many of them are replicas of what had been there before.  Apparently many of them burn down periodically and then are rebuilt. Some temples have been replaced numerous times over the centuries (they are wooden structures).  The biggest danger of fire comes from lightning. If you look closely on the left of the picture of the temple, you can see lightning rods.

The Japanese were very advanced in earthquake technology.  We saw temples built almost 800 years ago that had withstood earthquakes because of how the foundation was built.  I was told that when a temple burns down and is rebuilt, the foundation is built to withstand earthquakes even though modern fire prevention methods e.g. sprinklers are not part of the replacement temple.

Buddhist temple

It seems that whenever I travel to conduct trainings, I find interesting items in the local press for this blog.  My trip to Troy, Michigan last week for SEMBOIA was no exception.  The Detroit Free Press had a very good article about using demolition wisely to target high crime areas.  http://www.freep.com/article/20100421/NEWS05/4210312/Vacant-Detroit-homes-where-crime-thrives-the-first-to-go It seems the local agencies worked to determine which vacant buildings were located in areas with the highest concentration of homicides, assaults, rapes, robberies and arsons.  Instead of tearing down vacant buildings here and there throughout the city, this approach recognizes that vacant buildings breed crime and that targeting specific areas is a better use of the funds available.  At a time when funds for demolition quickly run out, it’s an approach that is very smart.

I recently did an all day training for the Illinois Fire Inspectors Association and I found myself talking about using multiple codes for violations.  Fire inspectors often work with both the IFC and the Life Safety Code and have to decide which one to use.  I find that the IFC has superior administrative provisions and gravitate towards it for enforcement.  The Life Safety Code is a great code to follow when something is being constructed.  Beyond that, I sometimes find that using the IPMC is helpful when dealing with a problem property because it has very specific sections on the condemnation of unsafe buildings, structures and equipment.  In some jurisdictions, the building department writes the violations for the fire department or fire district.  In those cases, I’ve often seen the inspectors use Chapter 7 of the IPMC for fire code violations since it’s fairly comprehensive for common fire safety violations.  Ultimately it doesn’t matter which code you use as long as it’s appropriate to the situation and it meets the local requirements of your jurisdiction and state.  Being flexible is important because you may find that you hit a dead end using one code but the solution lies in another.  When I wrote the guide books for the IBC, IFC and IRC, I included a chapter on using the IPMC when unsafe structures were involved.  The IBC and IFC have some guidance for unsafe buildings but not to the point of condemnation. The IRC has nothing about unsafe structures.  Now that there are many half-built single family structures standing around, this becomes a problem since the IBC doesn’t apply to them.  I usually recommend using the IPMC (if you have adopted it) if the permit has expired.  If you don’t hve the IPMC, you better have a decent public nuisance ordinance.  Otherwise, the only alternative is a demolition lawsuit which in most jurisdictions can be a costly procedure.

The earthquake tragedy in Haiti is a reminder of what can happen when there are no building codes or the existing ones aren’t enforced, when there are no building inspectors or a lack of oversight. The sight of collapsed schools, government buildings and residences is heartbreaking. I recently had a call from an inspector who said that his local jurisdiction was considering writing its own code instead of following the IBC because contractors were complaining that it cost too much to build following the IBC. Given the economic circumstances, they wanted a “less strict” code. Every time we sacrifice safety for monetary gain we are hoping that disaster doesn’t strike and reveal the dark side of less restrictive enforcement. Poorer countries lack the luxury of regulation and we can understand how things like this happen but we shouldn’t forget our homegrown tragedies like the collapse of the Hyatt walkway in Kansas City. We keep making the same mistakes because we forget what history teaches us. What happened in Hait is not a surprise. Newspapers recounted the collapse of schools in Haiti in 2008 due to poor construction. In 2007 the Department of Sustainable Development of the Organization of American States was approached about working to bring about a national building code in Haiti. You can read more about this problem at http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/12/haiti.earthquake.infrastructure/index.html or watch Earthquake in Haiti.

I just returned from St. Louis and Kansas City, MO after teaching the Legal Aspects of Code Administration class.  I came across an interesting article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about firefighters reconsidering going into vacant structures to fight fires given the risk to the firefighters.  Here’s the link:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/928FB8B217BCBA4E862575D8000A8315?OpenDocument

I’m a big advocate of vacant building registry so that the fire and police departments are aware when they go on a call that the building is not inhabited.  We’re doing it in Hinsdale, IL and the response from those departments have been very favorable.  In the town in which I was doing a consultation in Missouri, I was told that in one section of the municipality 12% of the homes were vacant.  This makes is even more important to keep track of these structures.  There’s no sense in someone getting hurt or killed for a building that has been abandoned and is worth little.

In Victorville, CA a lender decided to tear down new homes and other structures that hadn’t been completed to avoid future fines from the local government for code violations.

Officials of Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas, which took over the development last year, were unavailable for comment. But Victorville city spokeswoman Yvonne Hester said the bank decided not to throw good money after bad.

“It just didn’t pencil out for them,” she said. “They’d have to spend a lot of money to turn around and sell the houses. They just made a financial decision to just demolish them.”

You can read the entire story in the L.A. Times at this address

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-demolish5-2009may05,0,4930126.story

Local governments frequently use fines as a way to motivate defendants to come into compliance with the code. Sometimes buildings have to be torn down if they’ve suffered too much damage from being open structures. But, this is the first time I’ve heard of tearing down brand new buildings as a way of coming into compliance with the local codes.