annual fire inspection at a warehouse, help!

[banana buds]

legal grow, but our municipality has had a thing against storefront collectives (court case that's on appeal) and the law reads in a way that they *could* force us to go defend out stuff in court.

got a note from the fire department saying they need to come in for their annual inspection.

what is the best plan of attack? what are the fire inspectors going to want? kinda freaking out...

 

[vta]

what are the fire inspectors going to want?

Full access. They want to look at sprinkler valves and such...but they are also looking for fire dangers...so, from my experience, they do a quick walk through and are gone in 5 min. Now if there is MJ growing...I couldn't tell you what they may or may not do. I'd rent a U-Haul and pack it up for the day.

A friend of mine built rooms in his commercial building and was notified just as you were. He took everything out and was cool as far as that goes but he was fined for his rooms not being up to code and electrical stuff. He had to tear down and reinspect. He now grows in tents.

 

[WillWork4Weed]

If you're concerned that they are going to give you hell....

I've heard of three methods of attack for this...

1)Time your harvest to be done in time for the fire inspection and have them take a look at a whole lot of nothing (muahahaha!)... Of course if you're halfway thrrough thats no good

2) Rent a truck for the day and throw everything in there (and move the truck elsewhere for the day)... Again the idea is that they'll have nothing to see.

3) Have your lawyer(s) on site with documentation in hand when the fire inspectors come through.

In all of the above cases- anything (stock, meds, supplies) and anyone that is not absolutely essential should be removed from the premises in case they decide to raid or otherwise be unkind.

 

[banana buds]

spoke with a friend who owns a large building and is in the game as well. his advice was to just ignore the note (was left in front of door of shop) for now and see if they come back, with the idea that they may let it fall through the cracks.

worst case the plan is thus: pull out all plants and grow equip for inspection day, make sure all the electrical looks good and clean, throw stuff into the rooms to make it look like project space (set up my electronics work bench, sculpting stuff, etc) to justify the large rooms that have dedicated AC units. luckily we are in between flower cycles so it is only vegging plants that have to be dealt with.

how wise are these guys? we've got a number of rooms built out, each with their own feeds to subpanels off the 3-phase mains, mini splits in the rooms. lighting and trays and stuff can be taken down/out, but do we really need to consider going so far as to pull out all the wiring and ac units for this?

 

[banana buds]

Full access. They want to look at sprinkler valves and such...but they are also looking for fire dangers...so, from my experience, they do a quick walk through and are gone in 5 min. Now if there is MJ growing...I couldn't tell you what they may or may not do. I'd rent a U-Haul and pack it up for the day.

A friend of mine built rooms in his commercial building and was notified just as you were. He took everything out and was cool as far as that goes but he was fined for his rooms not being up to code and electrical stuff. He had to tear down and reinspect. He now grows in tents.

the shop never had sprinkler systems when we moved in (very slightly under a year ago) and nobody ever mentioned anything about needing them. how do you figure out if you are supposed to have sprinklers or if having fire extinguishers around is enough?

what things did they cite your buddy for on the construction and electrical? we've done everything to code so far as i know, but for obvious reasons didnt ever involve the city in any kind of inspection or planning capacity... how does that work?

 

[Hammerhead]

Most states require this. if the rooms electrical was never inspected and you never got permits to do so you will get a violation. Any electrical work needs permits and inspection's.

 

[banana buds]

Most states require this. if the rooms electrical was never inspected and you never got permits to do so you will get a violation. Any electrical work needs permits and inspection's.

what about the stuff that was already there? will the fire dept inspector have any idea what's what, and if not, wouldn't it be safe to say that everything was already there?

or do i really need to at this point assume i will need to remove all the subpanels / feeds / disconnects for inspection day?

and the walls are all non-load-bearing, what will they have to say about those?

 

[Bullfrog44]

Tell them everything is existing non conforming. That means it was sold to you that way and they will take it easy on you. They will ask you to update fire extinguishers and maybe a few violations you have. Be nice and fix what they want, and they will go away.

I also agree on ignoring the letter until another arrives. These guys go to hundreds of places a week, there are cracks these things fall into.

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

take down inspect rebuild doing it myslef now... its alot of work but more then likely will be alot less hassle...

 

[banana buds]

take down inspect rebuild doing it myslef now... its alot of work but more then likely will be alot less hassle...

details? we have proper walls built, demo'ing them would be a huge bitch, and then having to rebuild...ugh

 

[fishheadbob]

I think you have to clear out anything grow related and put in something that justifies all the space, air handling , etc. Firefighters are paramilitary. They have officers, wear uniforms, call each other sir, and half the time a fireman's brother is a cop. Sure there are cool firefighters, but not when you put them on the spot in front of one of their peers. Even if you are 100% legal they could really start nit picking if they wanted to - look at it this way - why inspect if they aren't going to find something not up to standards; there wouldn't be any reason to have inspectors so they'd be out of work. What if you get some old right wing coot inspector who decides to make your life hell.

 

[caljim]

take down inspect rebuild doing it myslef now... its alot of work but more then likely will be alot less hassle...

What he said. Just did it myself. It's not fun, but neither are the options.

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

details? we have proper walls built, demo'ing them would be a huge bitch, and then having to rebuild...ugh

take out anything grow related... and clean house.. you can leave walls just make it look like a empty warehouse.

 

[prune]

It helps to take these circumstances into account from the very start and build things so that they can "disappear" in a few hours. Walls assembled with screws, electric with quick disconnects at the main, and no duct tape - lol.

 

[praisehim.]

what POOPYBAGS said. clean out all grow related. leave rooms. Make sure it doesnt smell either. If they ask what they are for.. theres a million excuses.. painting for starters..

 

[krunchbubble]

been thinking grow tents in warehouses may be a better option for situations like this...

grab those Secret Garden Intense 600's....

 

[Hydrolized]

been thinking grow tents in warehouses may be a better option for situations like this...

grab those Secret Garden Intense 600's....

Or grow shipping containers.... The best in convenience in these situations.

At the least you just shut down/unplug container and they might tell you to get it out of the building. At most, unplug, drain any tanks if DWC leaving just enough for roots to last a few hours, turn on battery powered air pump, move whole container down the street until FD leaves.

Same thing if the landlord sells the building/there is a flood/fire etc...just move your whole container complete with plants to a new spot, wire a new connector to your main, plug in, and your growing again.

 

[Bullfrog44]

The best way to do things big is easy, and doesn't involve tents, lol. Rent a warehouse that has a doc for semi trailers. Buy those semi trailers that have all the grow equipment set up inside of them. 53' are preferred. When inspection time comes, tow your semi to another location. Takes about 20 min to get ready for travel. A lot of times the inspectors wont even want to see what is inside of the trailers, they are concerned with the building and fire dangers.

Hope this helps.

BTW, I have had terrible luck with tents in the past. I can only imagine the problems you would face with tens or hundreds of these things.

 

[Goodkarma]

Inspection.

Inspection.

I recently had to go through a city (home)inspection. First I went online to make sure there really was inspections ongoing. Then I went to the neighborhoods that were already inspected (the website gave a map of when each neighborhood would be inspected).

I asked what they were nicking people on. I learned that they were using a flowsheet of 30 items that needed checking.
Then I fixed everything that needed fixing. It was simple things like extension cords removed, smoke/CO detectors,GFI etc.

Hopefully you can do something similiar. Since I had all the checklist clean, they never asked to even look in the room I was growing in.

 

[TripleDraw27]

OP , assuming you have built a room within a room right? Like people said, take equipment out...but who's to say that room isn't for airbrushing etc.