BACK ON MAY 13, FIREGEEZER REPORTED HERE on the ordinance passed by the Greencastle, Indiana, city council requiring identifying stickers to be place on structures built with “engneered” and “lightweight” construction materials.
When we first posted it, there was a lot of positive feedback along with sparking some initiative for others to follow the practice. Now we’re pleased to report that another town has joined the effort to help protect firefighters from this insidious contruction method.
The Derby, Connecticut, Board of Aldermen has scheduled a public hearing on July 23 on a proposed ordinance that would require a reflective sticker be affixed to buildings built with prefabricated engineered lumber. The Connecticut Post reports:
“You are the smallest town in the state, but you have the opportunity to set a large example,” Frank Ricci, of the Connecticut Council of Occupational Safety and Health, told the Board of Aldermen last week. “We are hoping what we start here in Derby will be a catalyst for an eventual state law that would mirror the Derby law.”
That law, administered through the new ordinance, would require a special reflective sticker be put on those buildings built with prefabricated engineered lumber, which burns and collapses faster than stick construction, according to Ricci, who also is a New Haven firefighter (and plaintiff of the recent lawsuit just settled by the U. S. Supreme Court in Ricci vs. DeStefano….Ed.).
It’s impossible to tell by looking at a building from the outside if it is built with the engineered lumber, he said. The reflective stickers would warn firefighters they are dealing with such construction so that they can take extra precautions, he said.
The cost of the stickers would be minimal, Alderman David Lenart said, and a request has gone out to city businesses for donations to buy them for existing buildings. An additional $5 fee would be charged to all building permits for such buildings, he said.
Anyone refusing to put the sticker on an eligible building or removing an existing sticker could be fined $25 a day, according to the ordinance.
“It is very sobering to hear what is happening” to firefighters who enter such buildings, Mayor Tony Staffieri said.
Read the complete article in the Connecticut Post HERE.
Read the Firegeezer story with video from Greencastle HERE.
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