LONG BEACH REAL ESTATE – LONG BEACH FIRE & BUILDING CODES

Long Beach Implements New Fire & Building Codes Effective January 1, 2008

The Long Beach City Council unanimously approved the first round of Building and fire Codes for all projects submitted for approval as of January 1, 2008. 

We had quite a year of deadly fires here in Long Beach California.  The deadly fire in the Galaxy Tower in Bluff Park on March 29, 2007 claimed the life of John Carlyle Crews who tragically jumped to his death from his 18th floor balcony.  The Paradise Garden Apartment Fire, the largest blaze to hit Long Beach in three decades back in December 2006 which claimed the lives of 2 people.

We still have a handful of high-rise buildings in Long Beach without sprinkler systems who have been grandfathered in and are currently exempt from current building codes.  How many more lives will we have to forfeit before ALL buildings in Long Beach are properly retrofitted with fire sprinkler systems? 

Uniform codes have been replaced with International Fire Code and the International Building Code as the new model codes for California.  Other codes that were also adopted are:

Per the City of Long Beach, Local amendments to the California Fire Code will include:

• All new commercial, industrial and nonresidential buildings that require two or more exits, or that are greater than 3,000 square feet, shall be protected by an automatic sprinkler system. 

• All new multi-family (3 or more units) residential, hotels, motels and similar buildings shall be protected by an automatic sprinkler system. 

• All new single-family dwellings and duplexes greater than 4,000 square feet or more than two-stories in height shall be protected by an automatic sprinkler system. 

• All existing multi-family residential, hotels, motels and high-rise buildings shall upgrade the existing fire alarm system to current code, at the time of replacement of the existing non-functioning fire alarm control panel. 

• Partial automatic sprinkler systems are not allowed. Where automatic sprinkler systems are required to be installed by this section, or by any other sections in this code, the automatic sprinkler system shall be installed throughout the entire building. 

• Fire apparatus access roads shall have an unobstructed width of not less than 26 feet, and an unobstructed vertical clearance of 15 feet. 
• Fire apparatus access roads shall have a minimum inside turning radius of 28 feet.

Final approval is scheduled at the next Long Beach City Council meeting.

For more information visit:  www.longbeach.gov/plan