Form revised February 4, 2010

FISCAL NOTE FOR NON-CAPITAL PROJECTS

Department:	Contact Person/Phone:	DOF Analyst/Phone:
Fire	Lynne M. Kilpatrick/386-1373	Joe Regis/615-0087 Greg Doss/615-1759

Legislation Title:

AN ORDINANCE relating to the Seattle Fire Code, adopting as the Seattle Fire Code the 2009 edition of the International Fire Code with some exceptions, amending and adding various provisions to that code; amending Section 22.600.020 of the Seattle Municipal Code; and repealing Sections 2-426 of Ordinance 122491.

· Summary of the Legislation: The legislation adopts the 2009 International Fire Code, with local amendments, as the 2009 Seattle Fire Code. The express purpose of this code is to promote the health, safety and welfare of the general public.

· Background: This ordinance locally adopts and amends the 2009 International Fire Code, which is the technical fire code and edition specified respectively by the State Legislature and State Building Code Council as the minimum standard for use throughout our state. By adopting such codes locally and making amendments, we are able to address many unique characteristics of our community. Companion codes including the building code, residential code, mechanical code, and fuel gas code are being submitted simultaneously by the Department of Planning and Development, each a separate ordinance.  

Notable changes between the current 2006 Seattle Fire Code and the proposed legislation include increased fire protection controls for ambulatory health care facilities, installation of school alerting systems for all schools, sprinkler protection for certain furniture and mattress stores and for institutional occupancies used for medical care on a 24-hour basis, installation of carbon monoxide alarms in most residential occupancies, annual notification requirement of the location of laboratories where activities involving certain infectious and communicable diseases are conducted, and marking exit paths in high-rise buildings with self-luminous tape or paint. New provisions in the 2009 code also require a system to be installed in most buildings that will ensure radio coverage for emergency responders and high-rise buildings more than 120 feet are required to have an elevator dedicated for use by the fire service.   

The amendments proposed in this ordinance have the approval of the Fire Code Advisory Board whose members represent the public, labor, business, industries, and technical and professional disciplines. The members of this board have been meeting regularly to review the proposed code for the past fourteen months.   

__x_ This legislation does not have any financial implications.