Fire Inspections

[FMFFPB]

I am interested in finding out how many Fire Department have a fire prevention bureau or does the town or municipality perform the inspections and are they full time or part time inspections. Were do you put most of your fire prevention activities into inspections or public education?

Thank you
William Smith, Fire Marshal
wsmith@fairfieldnj.org

[BoxAlarm187]

The heart of all of our inspections, prevention, and investigations is within our fire marshal's office (FMO).

The FMO consists of eight personnel who are cross-trained, but four of them specialize in inspections, and four of them in investigations. Because of the size of our jurisdictions and the number of occupancies we have, the FMO inspectors focus on schools, hospitals, restaurants, nursing homes, and the like. The firefighters in the field (assigned to the engines, trucks, etc) handle all of the rest of the "routine" inspections at most retail, commercial, and industrial facilities. Any issues that arise during these inspections are then passed along to the FMO.

As for prevention, this is handled two different ways. To deliver 4th grade education to the 45 elementary schools we have, selected firefighters are paid OT to visit the schools and deliver the message. The rest of the prevention activities are coordinated through the FMO, and depending on the target audience and complexity of the presentation, they either delivered by the FMO or the engine company firefighters in that district.

HTH...

[Bones42]

Fire Inspections are done by our Building Department.
Fire Investigations are done by PD Detectives and County Fire Marshalls.
Fire Prevention is done by Fire Department.