by ARI PAUL
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta April 1 urged the City Council to approve changes to the Fire Code to bring it up to date with the current Building Code and changes in technology and safety.
During a meeting of the Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee, the Commissioner said that this was the "first comprehensive revision since New York City's Fire Code was first adopted in 1913" and was meant to make the city's code compliant with international standards.
Key Changes
Among other improvements, Mr. Scoppetta testified that the proposed revision would enhance "firefighter operations and promotes the safety of firefighters and other emergency responders by providing for rooftop access and elimination of rooftop obstructions, requiring fire apparatus access roads in private developments, and regulating toxic and other hazardous materials that present hazards to emergency responders during emergency operations."
The amendments will also mean more permit requirements for building owners to store and use certain materials, he said.
Mr. Scoppetta said that the new code would put helicopter and hot-air balloon landing safety under the auspices of the department.
"This formalizes what we have been doing," the Commissioner said. Mr. Scoppetta added that the proposed changes had popular support and were the result of input from the Department of Buildings, the City Council, labor unions and real-estate professionals.
UFOA Supports Bill
"We hosted a public hearing on Dec. 20, 2007 at FDNY Headquarters, at which comments could be offered in person," Mr. Scoppetta said in his testimony. "More than 200 people attended the public hearing. No speaker opposed the adoption of the new Fire Code, and the overwhelming majority of the speakers offered unconditional support of the new Fire Code as proposed."
Uniformed Fire Officers Association President John J. McDonnell praised the bill last week in a phone interview.
"We're very much in support of it," the union president and Battalion Chief said. "What the new code has done is address many of the new building components we use today in constructing buildings. It also addresses the greater advances in the technological fields of fire and smoke detection."
The UFOA was especially grateful, he said, to Deputy Assistant Chiefs Thomas Jensen and Richard Tobin, who are in charge of the Bureau of Fire Prevention.
"We applaud the work they've put into this," said Mr. McDonnell. "Under their command this new code has transpired."
Final Hearing Next Week
This was the first of two hearings on the bill. The committee will hear more testimony on amending the Fire Code during a meeting on April 15.
In his testimony, Mr. Scoppetta promised that the new code would be more transparent, which would "promote code compliance and economic development in the city by making it easier for design professionals and affected property owners, business and other members of the public to understand their obligations under the law."
At the end of last week's hearing, Councilman Mathieu Eugene praised the code's preventative measures and invited the department to conduct fire education classes in his Brooklyn district.
"The best medicine is prevention," he said.
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