Fire Code Compliance in Orange County

Orange County in Central Florida is prone to fire outbreaks. According to the Orange County fire department, there was a total of 665 fire calls in 2018, which accounted for 2.6 percent of the department’s entire call response for the year. The Orange County fire department is charged with the responsibility of offering fire protection services to the residents. The fire department must ensure that the fire suppression operations in all building are operational. Orange County is predisposed to a variety of threats that affect business and the environment. Orange County fire department has an Emergency Management Plan that provides a framework that will ensure that the county can deal with such hazards(Lin et al., 2018). Due to the recent rise in cases of fire code violations, the fire department has to increase fines and cost of violating the fire code violations. Orange County requires a strategy that can ensure they mitigate the cost and fines of code violations.

A Cost-benefit Analysis

The fire codes help to reduce case fire outbreaks that lead to loss of property and death. The NFPA fire prevention code is a useful strategy used by the Orange County fire department that ensures that people comply with the fire codes. Code enforcement is the process of ensuring that all building complies with all the fire codes and laws. This is an action that is taken by the fire inspectors to ensure that citizens adhere to the fire codes.

Code enforcement helps to prevent any case of fire outbreak by proper inspection of fire equipment within buildings. The fire prevention program provides the standard fire equipment every building should have. The fire codes help people to learn the essence of safety in buildings in case of a fire outbreak. They also help in fire investigations and fire research and analysis. Code enforcement is grouped in various programs and thus used as a legal tool that will ensure compliance with fire codes (Grant, 2016). They cover the main importance of fire prevention within commercial buildings.

The effect of non-enforcement of the fire code by citizens can lead to many cases of fire outbreak. If a fire inspector does not ensure that all buildings have adhered to the fire codes, there is a possibility of increased fire outbreaks. Non-enforcement can lead to fire-prone buildings that would cause more deaths and accidents. Non-enforcement of the fire codes occurs if a fire inspector does not have the required support from the fire department. Non-enforcement also happens when the mayor cuts the funding of the fire department reducing the fire prevention programs (Lin et al., 2018).

Prevention Strategies

In 2018, the Orange County recorded an average was eight deaths and 50 injuries per 1000 commercial fires. This was high as compared to the average rate of Florida State which is six deaths and 40 injuries per 1000 commercial fires. The following prevention strategies can be used to prevent the frequency of fire outbreaks. The fire department can use primary prevention strategies which prevent an incident from happening. This entails ensuring fire safety by providing all buildings have fire safety equipment. The fire department can use secondary prevention strategies which mitigate the damage after it the fire has occurred (Ward, 2017). This includes equipping the building with smoking alarms, sprinkler systems, and fire alarm system.

Mitigating cost of fire code violations

Business owners in Orange Country could cross utilize their fire resources effectively by buying them in bulk to get a better deal. Through mass purchasing of fire equipment and insurance, the fire department can reduce the cost of fire code violations. Since the budget for the fire department is around $7,000 to $ 9,000 for the fire department, the funds needed for operation are limited. Therefore, consolidation of funds by the Orange County fire department will help to reduce overhead costs and increase operational funds thereby lowering the cost of fire code violation for. Furthermore, consolidation will help in administration, and the purchase of fire equipment making it a unified fire district which will help reduce cost and fines of fire code violations.

References

Ward, M. (2017). Fire Officer: Principles and practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Lin, S., & Abdel-Ghaffar, K. (2018, January). Fire codes capable of correcting bursts beyond their guaranteed burst-correcting capabilities. Information Theory and Applications Workshop (ITA), 2016 (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Grant, C. (2016). Dollar Figures: Why it’s essential to quantify the economic impact of the fire service.  Retrieved fromhttps://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications/NFPA-Journal/2016/November-December-2016/Columns/Research

Ortega, C. (2018). Same warehouse catches fire 4 times in Sparks. Retrieved from https://www.kolotv.com/content/news/The–479652073.html

 
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