Bangor is home to 539 three- and four-unit apartment buildings, and firefighters have been through about 25 of them in the past 2½ weeks to conduct fire safety inspections.
That’s 25 more three- and four-unit buildings than firefighters inspected proactively last year. Although it could take 18 months before Bangor Fire Department personnel go through all 539 multi-family dwellings, the fact that inspections have started represents important progress for Bangor.
The city several years ago conducted fire safety inspections of apartment units, but the program “tailed off,” Bangor Fire Chief Thomas Higgins said. Ever since, the city has only inspected apartment units in response to complaints from tenants and requests from landlords. Federally subsidized housing, such as Section 8 housing, has been an exception since federal rules require annual inspections.
Maine residents — and fire departments — received a devastating reminder of the importance of fire safety at home last November, after a fire tore through a multi-apartment dwelling in Portland, killing six young people.
The city of Portland halted routine, proactive fire safety inspections of residential rental units early in 2014. It restarted its inspection program after the blaze at 20 Noyes St., near the University of Southern Maine campus — the state’s deadliest fire in four decades. It’s encouraging to see Bangor do the same with its inspection program.
Fire departments across the country have long placed more emphasis on safety inspections of places where the public gathers, such as schools, stores and businesses.
It would be unrealistic to expect fire departments to inspect all homes in their cities. To start, it’s unconstitutional for them, under the Fourth Amendment, to require inspections of single-family homes — a definition that also includes two-unit dwellings. But residential fires are more common than blazes in those public places. Residential fires account for more than three-quarters of fire deaths in the U.S., according to the U.S. Fire Administration. That means any headway a fire department can make in ensuring local homes are fire safe is valuable.
There’s good news to report out of the inspections done so far in Bangor, Higgins said. Firefighters so far have noticed no major fire code infractions that put tenants in direct danger.
“They’ve found mostly small things,” he said, such as improperly used extension cords, missing electrical outlet covers, street addresses that aren’t clearly marked and exits that could be clearer. “There have been no significant problems brought to our attention at this point.”
The fire department started inspections of three- and four-unit buildings on July 7, and Higgins said the department expects to inspect about 30 per month. The department schedules inspection times with landlords after contacting them by mail — firefighters are starting with the landlords with whom they’ve been able to make contact. Severa. landlords have contacted the fire department on their own to schedule inspections of their units.
“We’ve been pleasantly surprised to see how many people have been compliant,” Higgins said.
City staff have said they also ultimately plan to inspect Bangor’s larger apartment buildings — those with five or more units.
The numbers of fires, fire-related deaths and injuries and the value of property lost to fire are on a downward trend in the U.S. Still, fire takes too large a toll.
Basic fire safety inspections won’t prevent all disasters, but if they can contribute to saving just a few more lives, preventing injuries, keeping more people out of homelessness and reducing property damage, it’s more than worthwhile for Bangor.
