Finger Lakes Building Officials, Inc.

An Affiliated Member of the New York State Building Officials Conference

October 1, 2003

RE: Authority for inspection of construction activities performed by local fire districts

This is in response to your question regarding which authority is required to inspect construction activities performed by local fire districts. You state that the Fire District No. 5 believes that they are responsible for inspection of the construction. It is our opinion that the fire district construction activities are the responsibility of the Town.

You provide the following documents:
- Correspondence dated July 28, 2000 from William Pippine, P.E., Codes, Buffalo Regional office to town building department, which is correct.
- Correspondence dated September 15, 2000 from William Pippine, P.E., Codes, Buffalo Regional office to town building department, which is correct.
- Article from Fire District Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 11, April 1992 (second part, Vol.19, No. 12, May 2002, is not provided) which is incorrect.
- Correspondence dated September 4, 2003 from , Esq. to yourself, which is incorrect.

In support of our opinion, attached is the responsive document, written shortly after the articles were published, by our then attorney, Phillip M. Sparkes, which in summary states the town is responsible and that the article was incomplete, since the it did not reference the enabling legislation for the Uniform Code (Article 18 of the Executive Law), which includes requirements for the Secretary of State to provide regulations for the enforcement of such code.

If you have questions regarding this advisory, please call me at (518) 474-4073.

Sincerely,

Cheryl A. Fischer, P.E.
Assistant Director for Code Interpretation
Codes Division
Al03-235

Finger Lakes Building Officials Association, Inc.
3100 Atlantic Ave.
Penfield, NY 14526