ABLI urges comprehensive review of fire codes.

The Association for a Better Long Island (ABLI), a group representing some $20 billion in commercial and industrial real estate, has told a State Senate committee hearing that there needs to be a strong uniform fire protection code that will end the current 'Tower of Babel,' where every village fire code is subject to personal interpretation by the last inspector who visits a building or construction site."

The hearing, chaired by State Senator Vincent Lebell of the Housing, Construction & Community Development Committee, heard from Brad Blumenfeld, who represented the ABLI during his testimony. Among those joining them was Senator Michael Balboni of Nassau County, Senator Serphin Maltese of Queens, and Senator Carl Marcellino of Oyster Bay.

Blumenfeld told the State Senators, "The members of the Committee should be congratulated for addressing this issue. Your work goes to the very heart of our duty to protect the lives of men and women who either work in or visit our public spaces."

However, the ABLI believes that a blizzard of regulations do not enhance fire protection efforts. "Some (rules) are national, some are state, some are county and some are village...each impacts the local developer, property manager, architects and engineers, and enforcement officials as we seek to protect the visiting public," Blumenfeld said. "In fact, what we have today is a web of regulations that contradict each other; some are confusing and some are archaic. They are enforced individually without regard to one another, and this leaves the enforcers of the system - the fire marshals, the building departments, the architects and engineers - with a subjective set of rules that they cannot agree upon."

The group noted that many municipalities adopted rules and regulations to clarify uncertain issues, often entrusting their inspectors to make the ultimate decision in the field. "The result is that each municipal level looks to its code as if in a vacuum, and the process of enforcement and interpretation rests in a subjective decision made by the last enforcement officer to visit the job site," Blumenfeld said. "While the goals here are admirable, the process is outdated."

Among the ABLI fire code recommendations for commercial buildings are:

* Have the State comprehensively codify the rules and regulations. Recognize that too much interpretive discretion is given to field inspectors. In fact, interpretations often vary greatly from inspector to inspector within a local municipality, forcing real estate professionals, as well as the governing authorities, to hit "a moving target" (in enforcement).

* The State code should follow the national codes, while taking into account regional differences in climate and land conditions. This code should supersede or incorporate. all local jurisdictions, except in rare or special instances.

* Building departments must coordinate with the Fire Marshal's office. Too often these agencies conflict with one another, rather than working in tandem to protect people.

* Any new code must incorporate simple common sense. For example, a strict interpretation of the Nassau County regulations prohibit a partial installation of a fire suppression and detection system in buildings that have no system at all. The original impetus for this regulation was to protect firefighters from walking into a partially protected building thinking they were fully protected. But this "all or nothing" strategy resulted in...nothing. Obviously, this is counter to the intent of the law.

* The code should allow a phasing in of systems as tenants vacate and new ones move in, allowing the real estate industry to keep pace with technology. There is no reason why firefighters cannot be kept up to date on these changes so their fire suppression strategy at these buildings remains intact.

* Older structures should continue to be grandfathered, providing they do not undergo a change in use or undergo major renovations, as is provided in the current code today. There is simply not the manpower available to make the sweeping upgrades on every older building in the State of New York. Attempting to enforce such a mandate would create a political environment not unlike Prohibition, where violations would become second nature and an accepted fact of life.

Blumenfeld told the Senate committee, "Today, everyone involved in fire protection - from the inspector to the developer - is mired a thicket of regulations that has become counter-productive. If anyone is going to be able to bring sanity to this process, it will be through a thoughtful review that begins before this Committee. We believe there are enormous advances that can be made in fire protection and suppression.