1501.01 ADOPTION.
(a) The Ohio Fire Code, as adopted through the provisions of the Ohio Administrative Code (as presently adopted and subsequently amended pursuant to the rule making provisions of the Ohio Administrative Code, the Ohio Department of Commerce and the Ohio Fire Marshall) and as published through Ohio Administrative Code Section 1301:7-7 and as published at http://www.com.state.ohio.us/sfm/ is adopted as the fire code for the City of Dover, Ohio.
(b) For any construction in the City of Dover requiring plan approval by the East Central Ohio Building Authority (ECOBA), plans must be first submitted to the Dover Fire Department for review purposes to insure that the provisions of this chapter and the Ohio Fire Code are adequately addressed. The Dover Fire Chief shall have authority to issue a stop work order if plans have not been submitted for review and significant fire code issues are not properly addressed.
(c) All commercial or institutional properties shall obtain and install a key vault compatible with the key vaults currently in use throughout the City of Dover and keyed to match the Dover Fire Department’s access key(s).
(d) All sprinkler or standpipe Siamese connections shall be equipped with a 5" Storz hose connection (as opposed to a double 2 & 1/2 connection with WYE) attached to a drop down elbow designed to provide relief to attached hose and reduce kinking.
(e) If any business or institution equipped with a fire alarm experiences three or more false alarms within any thirty consecutive days and is unable to provide evidence of appropriate attempts to rectify the problems that may exist within the system, the Fire Chief may assess a fine of one hundred dollars ($100.00) for the first occurrence. For each subsequent occurrence (three or more false alarms within 30 consecutive days that occurs within the following two years after the first occurrence), the Fire Chief may assess a fine of five hundred dollars ($500.00) and the additional assessment of the cost of dispatching a fire squad assessed at one thousand dollars ($1,000). The Fire Chief shall determine whether the business or institution has appropriately attempted to rectify the problems within the system.
(f) The Fire Chief shall have the authority to institute a building labeling system for businesses, institutions, any building with three or more apartments that was not originally designed as an apartment building and any mixed-use building with any number of residential living quarters. The building labeling system shall be instituted for the purposes of the safety of the citizens of the City of Dover, its firefighters, and the public at large within the City of Dover and any additional area served by the Dover Fire Department (presently Dover Township). The authority to institute this building labeling system does not create any duty on the Fire Department either to implement the system or to actually label any building. No liability shall be assessed against the City of Dover, the Dover fire department or any of its officers because of the implementation of the system, the posting of labels or the failure to post labels. The Fire Chief shall have authority to create labeling categories necessary to insure the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the City of Dover and to insure fire safety of the public and fire fighters. Included in the building labeling system shall be truss floors or roofs, metal deck roof, notations of significant alterations from the original design or structural affects caused by alteration, deterioration, erosion, subsidence, or shifting, the number of apartments, the access doors at street level for apartments.
(g) The labels shall be 3" x 3" red and white reflective material and shall be placed where designated by the Fire Chief. The City of Dover will provide the labels and shall have the authority to both label and to remove labels. This ordinance does not create any duty on the landowner or landlord to label its buildings. The Fire Department shall label buildings, only as time, opportunity, need and priorities of resources allow.
(h) To the extent allowed by the Ohio Fire Code, all appeals of fire code decisions or orders shall be heard by the Dover Ohio Fire Code Appeals Board. The Board shall be appointed by the Mayor of the City of Dover and shall consist of three members with fire fighting or fire training experience or commercial building experience. In the event that a party is aggrieved by the decision of the Dover Ohio Fire Code Appeals Board, the party shall have the right to appeal to the Tuscarawas County Court of Common Pleas on an abuse of discretion standard. The initial Board shall be appointed with one person having a one-year term, one person having a two-year term, and one person having a three-year term. After the initial appointment, each person shall thereafter be appointed for a three-year term.
(Ord. 43-10. Passed 9-7-10.)