📋

Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

Nevada County Grand Jury • 1999-2000

Fire and Life Safety Inspections of Places of Public Assembly Reason for the Investigation The Nevada County Civil*

25 pages

View PDF View Full Original

⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.

⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

Findings 6 findings

surveyed. Many Departments have an annual inspection Departments program. Other Departments only inspect as a result of a complaint or a building permit check. Some Departments have little or no program at all.

The Grand Jury learned of plans to pool the resources of their inspection programs between some Departments. The goal of this move is to improve the frequency and professional quality of the inspections within these districts.

For simplicity, each Department contacted has been given a letter grade by the Grand Jury. A- All places of public assembly inspected within the last year. B- Most places of public assembly inspected within the last year. C- Some places of public assembly inspected within the last year. D- Few or no places of public assembly inspected within the last year. F- Failed to respond to the Grand Jury questionnaire. A- Ophir Hill Fire Department A- Grass Valley Fire Department A- Higgins Fire Department A- Nevada County Consolidated Fire Department A- Rough and Ready Fire Department A- 49er Fire Department B- No Department met this criteria C- Nevada City Fire Department D- Donner Summit Fire Department D- Penn Valley Fire Department D- Truckee Fire Department F- Peardale-Chicago Park Fire Department Some of the violations noted by the various Fire Departments were: blocked exits,

lack of required exits, lack of emergency lighting, burned out light bulbs in emergency lighting, improper storage of flammable materials, lack of "panic hardware", and locked doors on emergency exits. These violations and lack of documented follow up inspections clearing such

violations places the physical well being of visitors to places of public assembly in serious risk. CONCLUSIONS The citizens of Nevada County are entitled to a reasonable degree of safety when

HIGGINS AREA FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT of Nevada County 10106 Combie Road, Auburn, CA 95602 Phone (530) 269-2488 • 268-0844 • Fax (530) 268-7737 August 16, 2000 Honorable Carl F. Bryan, II Presiding Judge Nevada County Superior Court Nevada City, CA 95959 David Janison, Foreman Grand Jury County of Nevada 950 Maidu Avenue Nevada City, CA 95959 Dear Judge Bryan and Foreman Janison: The following is the response of the Board of Directors of the Higgins Area Fire Protection District to the 1999-2000 Grand Jury report on Fire and Life Safety Inspection of Places of Public Assembly. FINDINGS 1. While the Higgins Area Fire Protection District's Board of Directors cannot comment on the inspection programs of other departments, it is our ongoing practice to annually inspect all commercial structures within our District's boundaries as part of a formal company inspection program. In addition, we conduct inspections based on building permit checks and complaints.

Recommendations 6

R1

inspections of the places of public assembly within their districts to begin such a program. Everyone in authority within a Fire Department in Nevada County should All responses due by September 30, 2000 Donner Summit Fire Department Board of Directors Nevada City City Council Nevada City City Manager Peardale-Chicago Park Fire Department Board of Directors Penn Valley Fire Department Board of Directors Truckee Town Council Truckee Town Manager Ophir Hill Fire Department Board of Directors Grass Valley City Council Grass Valley City Manager Higgins Fire Department Board of Directors Nevada County Consolidated Fire Department Board of Directors Rough and Ready Fire Department 49er Fire Department Board of Directors * 1WA * 1 CITY OF NEVADA CITY 1787 CALIFORNIA CENTENNIA Nevada City A Bicentennial Community September 7, 2000 Re: City of Nevada City's Response to the Nevada County Grand Jury Report The City of Nevada City has recently taken several steps to improve fire service to the public. First of all, the City has hired the Fire Marshall for the 49'er Fire District to act as the City's Fire Marshall to replace Terry McMahan who acted as the City's Fire Marshall for many years and who went to work for the Consolidated Fire Department. It took a number of months to replace him, while the City explored whether it was appropriate to hire another Fire Marshall as an employee or simply contract with another agency. Secondly, the City has recently hired two additional fire department employees. In determining how many new employees to hire, the City awaited to see the results of the tax measure. The Council strongly believes that with the hiring of David Ray, of the 49'er Fire District and the hiring of two additional fire department employees, that the City will be able to provide much better service to the public. One of the primary job of David Ray will be to make annual inspections of all places of public assembly and follow-up those inspections to make sure that all needed changes are made. Dated: September 12, 2000 Dated: September 12, 2000 CITY MANAGER CITY HALL • 317 BROAD STREET • NEVADA CITY, CA 95959 • (530) 265-2496 10 - 1787 1707 1707 1707 1707 1707 1707 1707 CITY OF NEVADA CIT CALIFORNIA CENTENT Nevada City A Bicentennial NOV 1 7 2000 Community November 8, 2000 The Honorable Carl F. Bryan Presiding Judge of the Superior Court 201 Church Street, Suite 5 Nevada City, CA 95959 Response to Grand Jury Report Re: Dear Judge Bryan: The City of Nevada City hereby responds to the Grand Jury Findings and Recommendations regarding fire and life safety inspections of places of public assembly as follows:
R2

As to Finding No. 2, the City Council agrees with this Finding and, again, for clarification the City has been in negotiations with the 49'er Fire Department for some time and has recently hired the Fire Marshall from the 49'er Fire Department. As to Finding No. 3, the City Council agrees with this Finding for the reasons
R3

For simplicity each department contacted has been given a letter grade by the Grand Jury. F- Failed to respond to the Grand Jury questionnaire. Response: We agree with the finding. The failure to respond to the initial questionnaire was an oversight on our part owing to the fact that we have no places of public assembly in our Fire District.
R4

As to Finding No. 4, while the City is not aware of violations reported by other Fire Departments, the City Council does agree that the problems set forth in
R5

As to Finding No. 5, the City Council agrees with Finding No. 5. CITY HALL • 317 BROAD STREET • NEVADA CITY, CA 95959 • (530) 265-2496 Peardale-Chicago Park Fire Protection District PO Box 697 Chicago Park CA 95712 Sept 13,2000 Hon Carl Bryan, II Presiding Judge Nevada County Superior Court Nevada City, CA 95949 Dear Judge Bryan, Please accept this letter as our response to the 1999-2000 Civil Grand Jury Report. In this report the Peardale-Chicago Park Fire Protection District received and "F" for failing to report on the status of inspections on places of public assembly. This was a simple oversight in that the Fire District has no buildings within the district that qualify as public assembly and so no report was submitted. Please be assured that in the future any request for information by the grand jury will be given prompt attention. Sincerely, Benedict Barretta Board Chairman PEARDALE-CHICAGO PARK FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT PO BOX 697 CHICAGO PARK CA 95712 530-273-2503 10/18/00 Mr David Maidu Ave Nevada City CA 95959 Dear Mr Janison, The following is the response of the Peardale-Chicago Park Fire Protection District to the 1999-2000 Civil Grand Jury Report as concerns Fire and Life Safety Inspections of Places of Public Assembly.
R6

HIGGINS AREA FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT of Nevada County 10106 Combie Road, Auburn, CA 95602 Phone (530) 269-2488 • 268-0844 • Fax (530) 268-7737 August 16, 2000 Honorable Carl F. Bryan, II Presiding Judge Nevada County Superior Court Nevada City, CA 95959 David Janison, Foreman Grand Jury County of Nevada 950 Maidu Avenue Nevada City, CA 95959 Dear Judge Bryan and Foreman Janison: The following is the response of the Board of Directors of the Higgins Area Fire Protection District to the 1999-2000 Grand Jury report on Fire and Life Safety Inspection of Places of Public Assembly.

Conclusions 3

CL1

attending an event in a place of public assembly. Lack of annual fire and safety inspections may deprive the public of this important entitlement.
CL2

Some of the Fire Departments have not conducted annual fire and safety places of public assembly. inspections in
CL3

A single fire in a place of public assembly could adversely affect tourism within Nevada County for years to come. Annual inspections and documented follow- up inspections may reduce this risk.

No Responses Found 1

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

Peardale-Chicago Park Fire Protection District Fire District

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.