Enforcement of strict new fire codes created in the wake of The Station fire is causing long delays in commercial construction, with waits as long as three months for fire and building inspections, contractors and the state’s fire marshal say.
Some contractors report that the delays are causing them to lose money or to have to pass on additional expenses to their customers. Others say they are just spending more time on the planning phase of their projects.
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“The process has gotten more complicated,” said Ed Burman Jr., president of E.W. Burman Inc., a Warwick-based commercial and industrial contractor with 50 employees. “Obviously, after The Station fire, everyone was under a microscope, which is to be expected.”
The extra wait time puts a damper on the construction process, said Anthony A. Nunes, owner of Anthony A. Nunes Inc., a 22-employee commercial and industrial contractor based in Bristol.
During the waiting period, materials costs sometimes increase, Nunes said, forcing the contractor to either absorb the cost or pass it on to the project owners – and they “don’t want to hear the price is going up.”
Nunes added: “The municipalities have good people working in their fire and building departments. We don’t have a problem with [them requiring] strict adherence to the codes … but the process takes too long.”
Burman concurred and said the delays can raise general contractors’ prices by 2 to 10 percent, depending on the project.
But there is no way of knowing how many projects are delayed due to the new fire code, said Eric Anderson, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America. No one is collecting data on the total number of projects delayed, he said, or the total financial impact those delays have had on general contractors.
State Fire Marshal George Farrell said he is well aware of the situation, and he is working to alleviate it.
Part of the problem lies in not having enough fire inspectors, either in his office or in the municipal offices, Farrell said. The state office, for example, needs six entry-level fire inspectors to reach a new quota set as a result of the Comprehensive Fire Safety Act of 2003.
But encouraging people “to come here and make this their career” is one of the biggest challenges, he said.
Most people, when they think of careers in fire safety, want to be firefighters, not fire code inspectors. “We’re trying to encourage them there is a career in [fire code inspection],” he said. “They can go into private industry.”
Many do, worsening the shortage caused by the lack of people entering the profession.
Farrell said he sees steady turnover in both the local bureaus and his own office. He estimates that only six to eight pre-Station fire employees remain among the state office’s 30 current employees.
That’s one reason why the office is updating all of the fire code inspection training to meet the National Fire Protection Association’s standards. The hope is that better training will help improve staff retention.
“As we train them, the goal is for them to stay longer,” Farrell said. “As they stay longer, they become better at their job – and that flows into consistency of enforcement and, to some extent, timeliness.”
Farrell said he understands the pressures contractors face to finish their projects in a timely manner, and he’s aware that they sometimes get conflicting directives from fire and building code enforcement officials. He also knows the effect that has on the construction business.
He said he has been meeting with the trade associations, with the goal of lessening the burden on general contractors by finding ways to streamline the process.
“We know he’s doing the best he can with the resources he has available,” Anderson said. “The fire marshal needs more funding, so he can get qualified people into [the profession].”
Revamping the training program and hiring new inspectors takes time, said Farrell, who became the state fire marshal only four months ago. So do revamping the training program and hiring new inspectors.
Meanwhile, contractors are finding ways to adapt to the delays in the system.
Dimeo Construction, for example, has learned to place “even more importance on the planning process,” said Anthony Dematteo, vice president of the Providence-based general contractor, which employs 225 people.
“The earlier you can start to collaborate with fire marshals and building officials … the easier it is to get the plan approved,” Dematteo said.
And having 20 employees dedicated to preconstruction planning helps to make sure things go smoothly, he said.
“Since so much of our work involves working with design teams in pre-construction, it is their responsibility to coordinate with building and fire officials,” he said. “It is their responsibility to meet with them early to make sure plans reflect expectation.”
That’s not to say the building or fire official won’t still ask for changes while inspecting a project, Dematteo said. But it helps.
