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Raleigh, N.C. — The state Building Code Council voted Tuesday to lower the standard for requiring sprinkler systems in dining facilities.
A regulation that went into effect in January required dining facilities that hold at least 100 people to have sprinklers. But the Building Code Council voted to revert to an older standard of requiring sprinklers in facilities seating 300 or more people.
Council member John Hitch, an architect, proposed lowering the accepted national standard, because it was too costly for smaller restaurateurs to meet.
The standard will remain at 100 people or more for nightclubs.
State Fire Marshal Jim Long was upset by the vote. Officials nationwide had worked to tighten building codes after a 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island killed 98 people.
When members of the state Building Code Council were asked to excuse themselves from voting because of a possible conflict of interest, no one abstained.
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And fyi...100 person capacity is NOT a very small restaurant. I'm not even sure it falls under small business.
March 14, 2007 12:05 p.m.
March 14, 2007 11:42 a.m.
Here's what happens when our government makes dumb decisions about structures that should be 'required' to have a sprinkler system (regardless of age): http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/1232662/
Don't know about you, but I'd rather have a wet Grandma than a dead one.
March 14, 2007 9:50 a.m.
Take the human cost out of the picture - a single sprinker head can save a business or home, since most fires start small. Recently, some residents of North Raleigh, living in subdivisons without hydrants, learned the hard way just how valuable a sprinkler system could have been. By the time the fires in their homes were seen and reported, they were too big to be put out before the home was a total loss.
So thanks, NC government, for once again taking the low road. In the proud tradition of NC politics, I wonder whose pockets got lined to make this happen? Is the bathroom video out yet?
March 14, 2007 6:44 a.m.
March 13, 2007 4:29 p.m.