Prevention Push

The July 20 fire at the Iconic Village apartments has not changed any rules about fire safety, but it has created stronger community support for fire prevention at multifamily dwellings.

Capt. Jonathan Henderson from the city’s fire prevention department explained that before the Iconic Village fire, his department underwent a reorganization. About a month before the fire, the fire prevention staff got together for a brainstorming meeting.

“We laid out a bunch of ideas of things we wanted to work on,” he said. “One was apartment inspections.”

Henderson said personnel discussed working with apartment managers on code compliance and even focusing more on nursing homes as multifamily.

“And then Iconic happened,” Henderson said.

The city follows the 2015 International Fire Code, Henderson said, and that hasn’t changed since the Iconic Village fire.

“What we’re going to enforce hasn’t changed,” he said.

What has changed is that the fire prevention department was able to add two positions to bolster safety efforts. Henderson said that a training manual for fire prevention personnel said that jurisdictions that do not enforce fire codes have a fire rate almost twice as high as jurisdictions with code enforcement.

With the two new positions approved by the San Marcos City Council, Henderson said, the fire prevention department now has five people that are focused on multifamily dwellings. The department is starting a multifamily occupancy inventory — with “multifamily” meaning triplexes or larger — and gathering information for risk analyses.

“We’re going out and gathering all the information,” he said, such as whether a leasing office is on site, how many buildings a multifamily development has, how many apartments per building and bedrooms per unit, and how many occupants there are.

After that information is gathered, Henderson said, “What will probably happen is the first apartment community we inspect will be the largest non-sprinklered complex in the city.”

City personnel have already begun looking at area apartment complexes to try to identify potential risks. Henderson said that accidents occur “when all the holes in the Swiss cheese align” — when factors that might not present a high risk by themselves coincide.

“Most of the time, bad stuff doesn’t happen,” he said, but fire prevention staff are hoping to prevent disasters or at least try to make sure that any fires that occur are small and easy to contain.

In the recent safety checks, Henderson said, fire prevention staff were looking for several factors.

“We’re looking at whether exits are open — is egress solid throughout the building,” he said.

Checks of exits include making sure there are no combustible materials under staircases — and Henderson said the definition of “combustible materials” is a broad one that can even include ice chests.

Firefighters and investigators from local, state and federal agencies were involved in the case. 

Fire prevention staff have also checked fire extinguishers, alarms and suppression systems.

“All of those systems have to be inspected at least once a year,” he said.

Echoing comments that Fire Marshal Kelly Kistner made at a recent press conference about the Iconic Village fire, Henderson said there are some basic safety tips people should keep in mind.

“Smoke detectors are important,” he said, adding that if anyone you love is moving into a multifamily residence, “Go and make sure their smoke detectors work.”

If they don’t, he said, call apartment maintenance and make sure they get fixed.

Henderson also said people should know at least two ways out of a residence — or, really, any building.

“Just think ahead of time — if there was an emergency, what would we do?” he said.

Moreover, parents whose children might have sight or hearing loss or be mobility impaired should make sure there are fire safety measures in place to accommodate their children’s needs. For instance, he said, smoke alarms must be equipped to add a visual element for the hearing impaired.

Henderson said that if apartment managers aren’t responsive to requests about safety, to contact the fire marshal. On state university campuses, he said, the state fire marshal is the ultimate authority for dormitory fire safety.

Although Henderson said it is too early to tell if any changes might occur to the fire code after Iconic Village, the fire has affected the way the community and the fire department are approaching multifamily fire safety.

“This is easily going to be one of the top (priorities) we address first,” he said. “Probably the intensity with which we’re going to address this is greater.”