(a) The Director must designate in writing a qualified individual to serve as the County Fire Marshal. Under State law, the County Fire Marshal serves as an assistant State fire marshal to enforce State fire prevention laws. The Director must appoint fire code inspectors to assist the Fire Marshal in performing the Fire Marshal’s duties. The County Fire Marshal may ask the State fire marshal to appoint one or more qualified employees of the Department of Permitting Services to serve as an assistant State fire marshal.
(b) The County Fire Marshal must inspect all buildings and premises in the County as often as necessary for compliance with the State Fire Prevention Code, the County Fire Safety Code (this Chapter), and any other applicable fire safety law or regulation, and to require correction of any other condition that the Fire Marshal determines unreasonably creates or would promote a hazardous condition. When the Fire Marshal sets a deadline for correction of a serious violation or other hazardous condition, the Fire Marshal should re-inspect the building or premises promptly after the deadline. The Fire Marshal may require a responsible party to provide, at the party’s own expense, certification by a qualified private fire protection engineer that the hazard was corrected on or before the deadline.
(c) In addition to any other inspection authority, the County Fire Marshal may, under State law, inspect any State, County, or municipally owned institutions, and any school, theater, church, or other place of public assembly.
(d) (1) The County Fire Marshal must inspect each school in the County at least once a year. The Fire Marshal must re-inspect a school within 10 days after the expiration of any deadline for correcting a fire code violation or other hazardous condition that was not corrected immediately during the original inspection.
(2) The Fire Marshal must not delegate or transfer any responsibility under this subsection to a municipal fire marshal unless the County Fire Marshal and the municipal fire marshal:
(A) annually agree in writing that the municipal fire marshal will carry out all responsibilities under this subsection for every school in the municipality;
(B) make the annual agreement available for public inspection; and
(C) provide a copy of each annual agreement to:
(i) the principal or other head of each school covered by the agreement; and
(ii) for public schools, the superintendent.
(3) In this subsection, “school” means any public or private:
(A) elementary or secondary school; or
(B) facility that provides early childhood education that requires approval by the State Department of Education. (1975 L.M.C., ch. 23, § 1; 2002 L.M.C., ch. 22, § 1; 2010 L.M.C., ch. 49, § 1; 2016 L.M.C., ch. 30, §1.)