Fire Codes

The City Council this week took a series of votes to bring local building and fire codes up to state standard. The new codes, which are updated by the state and city every two to three years, call for an upgrade in fire retardant roof tiles on new homes, stricter fire safety requirements in high-rise buildings, and mandatory fire sprinkler systems in new homes with more than 3,600 square feet.

A federal engineering agency that investigated the World Trade Center collapse recommended Thursday that cities raise the fire standards for skyscrapers and develop new materials that could better protect tall buildings in an inferno. Engineers with the National Institute of Standards and Technology said, for example, that stairwells should be situated apart from each other so that if one is damaged another might still work.

Politics have entangled the adoption of new building and fire codes for California, with Republicans charging Tuesday that two of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' appointees to the Building Standards Commission are too beholden to labor to vote fairly on the issue. At a Capitol news conference, Assemblyman John Campbell (R-Irvine) called for the removal of Sidney Cavanaugh, a special representative to the United Assn.

The first fire safety regulations to result from the recent wildfires won preliminary approval Tuesday from the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, but some residents said the requirements would make rebuilding their homes too expensive. If adopted at a future meeting, the new standards for the county's foothill and mountain areas would require new homes to have double-paned windows, nonflammable roofing and fire-resistant materials for walls and decks, among other things.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan on Wednesday denied allegations by the president of the firefighters union that the mayor has tried to get inspectors not to enforce fire codes on his friends' development projects. Capt. Ken Buzzell, president of the 3,000-member United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, leveled his accusations Monday evening at the close of a hearing of the City Council's Public Safety Committee.

The City Council decided recently to adopt the 1998 California Building and Fire codes. The codes, which provide safety standards for construction, are updated by the state every three years. In addition, the city has adopted state uniform housing, solar energy, sign and swimming codes. The swimming codes provide mandatory child safety swimming pool measures. The codes will become effective July 1. Information: (949) 248-9890.

A Ventura plumbing firm whose worker accidentally ignited a blaze that caused $12 million in damage to a luxury Thousand Oaks apartment complex will be billed for firefighting costs, a Ventura County Fire Department official said Friday. Interstate Plumbing Inc. was told that it must reimburse the county for the costs of fighting the blaze that destroyed 22 apartment buildings at The Knolls on Nov. 10, investigator specialist Peter Cronk said.

The Planning Commission last week unanimously approved amendments to the building and fire codes in an effort to reduce the potential spread of fires in recently annexed Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills, which are in a fire hazard zone, according to the county's fire authority. Under the new codes, all new construction will have to be built with fire-resistant walls and roofs, and future streets will have to be wider to offer easy access for fire trucks.

A fire inspector said that Safeway Stores may have violated fire codes in Richmond by stacking flammable paper products too close to hot ceiling lights, resulting in the expensive blaze that destroyed a company warehouse. Meanwhile, Safeway officials said that 400 to 500 warehouse workers and truckers whose jobs were put in limbo by the fire would receive layoff notices.

The first batch of compliance orders have been sent to landlords of pre-1943 apartment buildings in Los Angeles, ordering them to adhere to the latest city fire codes requiring sprinklers and magnetic hallway doors that close automatically when triggered by a smoke detector, officials have announced.

The hunt for boat slips in chronically congested Newport Harbor will grow even more critical in coming weeks as the city prepares to enforce fire laws that prohibit boats from being tied up alongside each other in overcrowded berths. The city's municipal code prohibits the practice, in part because flames can spread among linked boats and the tied vessels could hamper firefighting efforts.

California's building standards commission has adopted new fire and building codes that are backed by politically powerful unions and strongly opposed by building officials, who say the rules will be more costly and cumbersome to enact. The Building Standards Commission voted 8 to 2 Tuesday to adopt the codebook published by the National Fire Protection Assn., favored by plumber and firefighter unions.

Politics have entangled the adoption of new building and fire codes for California, with Republicans charging Tuesday that two of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' appointees to the Building Standards Commission are too beholden to labor to vote fairly on the issue. At a Capitol news conference, Assemblyman John Campbell (R-Irvine) called for the removal of Sidney Cavanaugh, a special representative to the United Assn.

There have always been risks associated with nightclubs, from brawls to drunken shootouts. Fire has been an ever-present danger. But in recent years, a combination of stringent fire codes, stricter enforcement and improved technology has dramatically reduced the number, and the severity, of nightclub fires. No fire code can protect a club from the unauthorized use of fireworks, such as the display that appears to have caused the Thursday fire in West Warwick, R.I., that has killed 96 people.

The Wildlife Waystation in Sunland-Tujunga, shut down last year during disputes with regulators, has been ordered closed to the public again for alleged fire code violations. The Los Angeles County Fire Department has ordered the 120-acre rehabilitation camp to halt all tours and educational programs, and to stop taking in animals. Fire inspectors also directed the celebrity-supported Waystation to move 29 lions from hillside cages.

UC Irvine has had a commendable safety record since it opened nearly 40 years ago. But a recent fire brought to light the troubling fact that about two-thirds of the buildings on the campus lack firefighting sprinklers. Among the facilities without sprinklers are two dormitories, five child-care centers and a Montessori school. All met the fire codes when they were built. Days after the July 23 fire in the five-story Frederick Reines Hall, UCI Chancellor Ralph J.

We were pleased to learn . . . that the Bowery Theatre had found new space in the Gaslamp Quarter (Stage column, by Nancy Churnin, July 15) and that the theater will move to this new location some time after Jan. 1. We felt that several pertinent facts were absent from the article, however. The 30-day notice to vacate was given in response to a "Notice of Fire and Safety Hazards" issued to the Bowery Theatre by the City of San Diego. The Bowery Theatre was cited by the Fire Department for operating without a public assembly permit and for being in violation of several fire codes.

Seeking to prevent a repeat of last year's devastating wildfires, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday encouraged cities and the state to adopt a host of new fire-prevention and firefighting measures. The recommendations, proposed by members of a countywide task force, include establishing new uniform building and fire codes, stricter brush-clearance standards and more intense training for firefighters who battle blazes in areas that mix urban and rural environments.

A brush fire that burned five condominiums along a coastal canyon in San Clemente proved so destructive in part because some residents failed to clear vegetation around their homes, fire officials said Thursday. Coastal sage and other native vegetation known to be highly combustible weave their way through many backyards along the canyon's ridge, in some cases growing far too close to foundations, officials said.

City Hall East, the temporary seat of Los Angeles city government, was cited for 480 fire code violations in 1999, and officials found it had no system to keep track of repairs, according to an audit released Thursday. As a result, City Controller Rick Tuttle recommended creating a process to alert the mayor and City Council of continuing problems.