I own one of those licenses sprinkler contractor companies you referenced and I worked for FM Global for 14 years. I did not mean to suggest the fire department inspectors should conduct the inspections. In most states, these guys are the ones who have been assigned the task of enforcing the law. They visit facilities to ensure the inspections are performed by a certified fire protection contractor on an annual basis in addition to many other responsibilities.
Inspections completed by the insurance company representatives and/or site safety personnel do not meet State Law in Georgia or many other states which I have investigated. Georgia State Law clearly states that all water based fire protection systems shall be inspected in accordance with NFPA 25 by a certified fire protection contractor on an annual basis AND that the inspection tag shall be maintained at the base of the sprinkler system riser for each system. These minimum annual inspections by fire protection contractors are required even if inspections are performed by insurance company representatives and/or employees at the location. The Georgia Fire Sprinkler Act specifically states "Fire protection system inspector" means an individual who performs inspections only on water-based fire protection systems in accordance with applicable codes and standards as adopted by the Commissioner. Such term does not apply to state, local, and insurance inspectors while acting in their official capacities. My brother is a 19 year fire fighter and I am very aware of the limited resources they have regarding inspectors. I was simply suggesting a process which might help them identify locations which are not following the state law. Maybe this clarifies my comments. Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:15:23 -0600 From: <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Concurrent Testing To: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" State fire marshal and local fire departments do not have the manpower to inspect all the facilities on a regular basis. That is why they depend on the owner to employ a licensed contractor to do the inspection and then submit the reports. One jurisdiction we dealt with recently stated it would take 3 years to inspect the major facilities within their jurisdiction, that doesn't include the "less significant" occupancies. They don't have the funding to hire more people and they are very limited on resources. Many of the larger commercial or industrial facilities have inspections performed by their insurance underwriter or their site safety personnel. They don't leave inspection tags and unless you ask for their report, the owner isn't going to share it with you. He might not share it with you even if you do ask. So just because there's not a tag you can't always assume there have been no inspections. Craig L. Prahl, CET Fire Protection Specialist Mechanical Department CH2MHILL Lockwood Greene 1500 International Drive PO Box 491, Spartanburg, SC 29304-0491 Direct - 864.599.4102 Fax - 864.599.8439 [email protected] http://www.ch2m.com <http://www.ch2m.com/> -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rodney Hamm Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 7:35 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Concurrent Testing .................. I will add one additional point...the enforcement of these requirements should improve. We have a problem in Georgia anyway, I wonder if the problem is nationwide? I have visited way too many facilities in Georgia and throughout the Southeastern United States which have expired inspection tags and there area a significant percentage of locations which have NEVER even had an inspection completed by a certified sprinkler contractor or a certified alarm company. The larger commercial facilities (likelihood of a more severe fire incident in many instances) located in the smaller towns and/or outside of city limits are more likely to have this problem than the smaller facilities. Seems like the fire department inspectors do not visit or do not ask about fire inspections at the larger facilities; based on my experience, inspections are warranted MUCH more at these facilities than most of the smaller locations. I am generally against government regulation, but maybe each state should consider a copy of the current fire inspection forms to verify inspections have been performed by a certified sprinkler contractor and a certified fire alarm company prior to issuing the annual business license or possibly some other annual renewal. If the company does not provide the required verification, send the fire department inspectors out for a quick visit to discuss the issue. The fact that it is required to obtain the annual business license would probably be enough incentive for most companies. Rodney K. Hamm, P.E. President/Owner Falcon Fire Protection Office (478) 953-1677 Cell (478) 396-6988 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
