Code board grants several appeals

Owners must install ‘interconnected’ fire, smoke detectors

The city Code Appeals Board recently waived sprinkler requirements for three mixed-use buildings, provided owners install "interconnected" fire and smoke detectors that will sound an alarm throughout if there's a problem anywhere and automatically alert the fire department.

The board also waived two fire-safety requirements for the Casanave building downtown, while denying requests to waive two other requirements that are designed to ensure a clear path to safety.

The board waived sprinkler requirements for the Texas Hot Dogs restaurant building on 12th Avenue, the former Belmar cafe building near the Greater Altoona Career and Tech Center and the former Sipes TV repair shop in Fairview.

"(The interconnected alarms) are a little different than the standard (household) smoke detector," said city building inspector Scott Brown. "One goes off, they all go off."

The detectors are a "compensating feature" for lack of the sprinklers that would otherwise be required by the International Building Code, according to the public notice for the meeting.

Such waivers wouldn't have been needed 15 years ago, Brown said.

The state is currently using the 2009 IBC, according to tklinspection.com.

"We're dealing with this in a slew of uncertified buildings coming through the office," Brown told the board.

Under the state's Uniform Construction Code, "uncertified" buildings are those without a certificate of occupancy, with those built before 1927 generally having such a certificate, according to tklinspection.com.

The interconnected detectors will be accompanied by manual-pull alarms near every exit door, enabling anyone who realizes there's an emergency to sound the alarm throughout, according to Brown.

When some types of fires begin, there's not a lot of smoke, and the manual alarm pulled by someone running out to safety could provide early warning to others who are unaware, Brown said.

The sprinkler requirement for the Texas Hot Dogs building was triggered by owner Tony Lamont's plans for two apartments on the second floor.

There's not much fuel load, and the building is well-kept, Brown said.

"It's a no-brainer to give him relief," Brown told the board.

The Belmar building requirement was triggered by owner Lou Ventura's plans for apartments above a first-floor sub shop.

It would have cost $80,000 to add sprinklers in the two apartments, Ventura told the board.

The former Sipes TV repair shop requirement was triggered by owner Ayanna Jenkins' intention to put apartments above her planned Mane Label Hair Extension business.

"A reasonable request," given the cost of a sprinkler system, the size of the space and the "fuel load," Brown said. "We have some duty to accommodate," he said.

For the Casanave building, where a code review was triggered by plans to create an apartment on the fourth -- top -- floor, the board waived a requirement that the exit onto a fire escape be through a door in that apartment.

It did so because the window exit for which the waiver was granted met a minimum size requirement of 20 by 24 inches or 5.7 square feet, Brown said.

Most people can climb out or be pulled out of a window that big, Brown said.

The window for which the waiver was granted is 7 feet tall, said owner Jimmy Colombo.

Also for the Casanave, the board waived a prohibition against having a window less than 10 feet above or to the side of a fire escape.

The prohibition exists to prevent fire from breaking out of a window opening, followed by a draft of cool air rushing in through the lower part and flames pouring out top -- making the fire escape impassible, Brown said.

"Oxygen coming in, flames coming out," he said. "Like a blow torch."

The waiver was for a window in a mechanical room, as long as workers frame out on the inside and cover it with five-eighths-inch drywall, which will provide one-hour fire resistance, Brown said.

The subsequent fake window on the outside will preserve the aesthetics of the building, while there's no harm in the loss of natural light for the interior of such a room, Brown said.

The board denied a waiver for three windows near which the fire escape passes.

Allowing such a waiver would present "quite a liability," Brown said.

Colombo doesn't want to close off the window like he plans to do in the mechanical room, because he doesn't want to deprive tenants of natural light, but he can install fire-rated windows -- including windows of quarter-inch glass or ones impregnated with wire, according to Brown.

"He's evaluating that," Brown said.

The board also denied a waiver that would have allowed Colombo to keep a door with a window on the second floor laundry room and a similar door on the third floor laundry room.

Allowing those doors to stay could compromise the corridors outside, which are routes to the fire tower, if a fire occurred in either laundry room, Brown said. Laundry rooms are plausible sources of fire, given that they contain dryers, he said.

Colombo will need to replace the doors with ones that are fire-rated for at least 20 minutes, and that are smoke resistant, self-closing and self-latching, Brown said. They can have fire-rated windows, although doors with such windows would be expensive, Brown said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.