Pasadena Fire Department Reports Compliance with State-Mandated Fire Inspections

The Pasadena Fire Department released its report on the dept.’s compliance with state-mandated fire inspections for calendar year 2022. The report shows that the Pasadena Fire Dept. completed 667 of the 2,348 mandated inspections (or 28%), a slight improvement from the 26% of inspections completed in 2021.

The report also shows that the Pasadena Fire Dept.’s compliance rates for different types of buildings vary. For example, the Pasadena Fire Dept. completed 605 of 2,252 of the initial fire inspections of Group R occupancy buildings (multi-family residential occupancies), representing a compliance rate of 27%. The Pasadena Fire Dept. also completed 45 of 96 of the initial fire inspections of Group E occupancy buildings (K-12 schools), representing a compliance rate of 65%.

The Pasadena Fire Dept.’s report is required by California Senate Bill 1205, which was signed into law in 2018. SB 1205 requires all jurisdictions that have the authority to conduct fire inspections to submit an annual report on state-mandated fire inspections to their governing body. SB 1205 in response to the disastrous “Ghost Ship” fire which killed 36 people in Fruitvale, Calif. In 2016.

Pasadena’s compliance report is available on the department’s website at www.cityofpasadena.net/fire.

In addition to the report, the Pasadena Fire Dept. said it is also taking steps to improve its compliance rates. These steps include:

• Increasing the number of fire inspectors
• Expanding the use of technology to automate fire inspection tasks
• Partnering with community organizations to educate residents about fire safety

A number of other local cities, like Pasadena, fail to complete 100% of the State-mandated inspections.

“BFD (Burbank Fire Dept.) is limited in its ability to fully achieve a 100% compliance rate for all state mandated inspections due to other workload duties such as emergency response, training, equipment maintenance, and public education,” Burbank Fire Chief Eric Garcia reported to the Burbank City Council in 2019.