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01/26/2006: "County Fire Marshal Job Handed Back To CD&PD"

(Chief McLaughlin presenting proposal last December to BOCC)

SJI Fire District 3 Chief Bill McLaughlin has announced the Fire District will no longer perform the duties of the County Fire Marshal. At the end of last year, Chief McLaughlin appeared before the Board of County Commissioners Previous Story to ask them to move on adopting new codes and user fees to support the role of the Fire Marshals position to include fire code inspections beyond what the County has performed in the past.

As an example of the need for such inspections, and fees to pay for them, the Chief reminded the Board of an apartment fire in Friday Harbor, that had spread from one attic area to another, due to a lack of proper fire walls in the attics, and had there been a program in place that did inspections -some of them yearly- the probable impacts of the fire may have been much less.


(Continued from front page)

While Commissioner Myhr expressed concerns of what hardships an expanded inspection program -and new fees to support it- might create for the public, he agreed the County should take a look at it. A draft ordinance has now been presented, and a public hearing has been scheduled, Previous Story but there has no staff report on what the impacts of the ordinance might be for the public; or if there has been a report, The Guardian is not aware of it.

In the meantime, a contract that had appointed San Juan Fire District 3 Fire Chief Bill McLaughlin as the Fire Marshal for SJ County came to an end on December 31. And according to a press release by Fire District Three, "negotiations between the County and the Fire District to continue the contract have ended….Under the terms of the agreement, the County was required to set the adoption of the International Fire Code as part of the San Juan County Code for public hearing by October 31. Failure to adopt the IFC and user fees to support the position left the position unfunded as of January 1, 2006. The County is required to provide the services under state law (RCW 48.48 and RCW 19.27)".

As a result of the lack of action by the County to renew the contract, San Juan Fire District 3 has stated they will now "refer all fire code plans reviews and inspections back to the County Department of Community Development and Planning."