Fire Chief John Berg reported that twenty-five of Fridley's apartment buildings having seventeen or more units have complied with the state fire code regarding the installation of building fire alarm systems. The owners of the remaining twenty-nine apartment buildings include five who have submitted plans for the installation of these fire alarm systems, and twenty-four who have contacted the City to request information or provide a written plan for how they will bring their buildings into compliance.

 According to Chief Berg, the Minnesota State Fire Code (MSFC) has required that apartment buildings with seventeen or more units to have a three featured fire alarm system since 2005. The three features include the installation of smoke and heat detectors in common areas, such as corridors, boiler and furnace rooms, laundry rooms, and mechanical/electrical rooms. The second feature of these systems is that they be equipped with annunciation devices (devices producing more than seventy decibels of sound in the apartment unit) that are installed in each corridor or apartment unit. The third feature is that this fire alarm system must be wired to a fire alarm panel that is tied to one of several outside alarm monitoring companies, such as Electro Watchman, SimplexGrinnell, or ADT.

 There are several reasons why the response has been slow to develop. First, the conversion of fire alarm systems is very expensive for apartment owners. Given the expense, and the fact that there are existing fire alarm systems in individual units as well as in the corridors of most multifamily units, the City's Fire Marshall Ralph Messer has been willing to grant additional time to apartment owners who have been willing to file a plan whereby the owner identifies a schedule for installation of the state's three tiered system. Another factor contributing to the slow response of apartment owners is the Fire Departments inspection schedule. With more than 650 rental property buildings (over 4,000 units) in Fridley, the Fridley Fire Department must adopt an inspection schedule that accommodates their staffing levels. The bottom line is that the size and complexity of the rental inspection program permits common area inspections of Fridley's apartment units no more frequently than once every two years.

 Where does the Fire Department go from here? According to Chief Berg, during 2010, the Fire Department's inspectors have contacted the owners of each of the twenty-nine non-compliant or partially compliant buildings to ascertain where the owner(s) is with plans to install the required alarm systems. Each will be given additional time to complete the alarm system upgrades; however, in no case will they permit the non-compliant owners to stretch the process out longer than December 31, 2011. After that date, the units will be posted to prevent further occupancy and their owners will be issued a criminal citation for non-compliance with state law.

 According to Chief Berg, the required fire alarm systems do make a difference and do potentially save lives. He indicates that Fridley has had two recent apartment fires that had positive outcomes due to the new fire alarm systems. In both cases the full corridor smoke detection system helped detect the fire a lot earlier than might ordinarily have been the case. The horns in the corridor and the individual units enabled all tenants to safely exit the building before the corridor became filled with smoke and before anyone was in serious jeopardy. In another recent fire in a forty-two unit structure, where the owner had not been compliant with the state fire code's alarm system requirements, a tenant discovered a hallway filled with smoke at about 1:30 a.m. The fire alarm system had not activated because the exit corridor has no smoke detectors. Fortunately, the tenant pulled a manual alarm system; however, had the fire been more serious in nature the first floor hallway would not have been usable due to the accumulation of heavy smoke. Residents would have been forced to exit the building through their apartment windows.

 If you have questions or comments about this article, please direct them to Fire Chief John Berg at bergj@ci.fridley.mn.us.