[Adopted 2-22-1971 by L.L. No. 1-1971 as Ch. 62, Art. I, of the 1971 Code]
A. 
A Bureau of Fire Prevention in the Fire Department of the Incorporated Village of Rockville Centre is hereby established, which shall be operated under the supervision of the Chief Engineer of the Rockville Centre Fire Department.
B. 
The Chief Engineer of the Fire Department shall designate members of the Fire Department as inspectors of the Fire Prevention Bureau as shall from time to time be necessary.
It shall be the duty of the inspectors of the Fire Prevention Bureau to enforce all laws and ordinances of the state, county, town and Village covering the following:
A. 
The prevention of fires.
B. 
The storage and use of explosives and inflammables.
C. 
The installation and maintenance of automatic and other private fire alarm systems and fire-extinguishing equipment.
The Fire Prevention Bureau shall, under the direction of the officer in charge, investigate the cause, origin and circumstances of every fire occurring in the Village of Rockville Centre and its fire protection districts, and so far as possible shall determine whether the fire is the result of carelessness or design. If the fire is of suspicious or undetermined origin, the officer in charge of the fire shall take charge immediately of the physical evidence and shall notify the proper authorities.
A. 
The Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, members or inspectors of the Fire Prevention Bureau may, at all reasonable hours, enter any building or premises within their jurisdiction for the purpose of making an inspection or investigation he or they may deem necessary to be made.
B. 
The Chief Engineer and inspectors of the Fire Prevention Bureau shall inspect as often as may be deemed necessary, or upon complaint, all buildings, structures and premises except the interior of one-family dwellings, for the purpose of ascertaining and causing to be corrected any conditions liable to cause fire or any violations of the provisions or intent of any law or ordinance affecting the fire hazard.
C. 
It shall be the duty of the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department to require the teachers, principals or other persons in charge of every public, private, parochial school and educational institutions to conduct at least 12 fire drills in each school year and to keep all doors and exits unlocked during school hours and during all times said building is being used by students, teachers or the public.
D. 
If the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department or any inspector of the Fire Prevention Bureau shall find in any building, structure, premises or any other place, combustible or explosive matter or dangerous accumulations of rubbish or unnecessary accumulations of rubbish, wastepaper, boxes, shavings, dead trees, branches or any other highly inflammable materials, and which is so situated as to endanger property or lives, or shall find obstructions to or on fire escapes, on or under stairs, steps, passageways, hallways, doors or windows, liable to interfere with the operations of the Fire Department or egress of the occupants in case of fire, such dangerous conditions or materials shall be ordered removed and remedied forthwith.
E. 
Whenever the Chief Engineer or inspectors of the Fire Prevention Bureau shall find any building or other structure which, for want of automatic or other fire alarm apparatus or fire extinguishing equipment, or by reason of age or dilapidated condition, or from any other cause, is especially liable to fire, and which is so situated as to endanger other property or the occupants thereof, and whenever such officer or officers shall find in any building combustible or flammable materials or conditions dangerous to the safety of such building or the occupants thereof, he shall order such dangerous condition or materials to be removed or to be remedied in accordance with recognized standards and practices for the prevention of fire.
F. 
The recognized standards and practices for the prevention of fire shall be held to mean the standard practices and requirements as set forth by the Insurance Services Office, National Fire Protection Association and the National Board of Fire Underwriters. Compliance with these standards or other approved nationally recognized safety standards shall be deemed to be prima facie evidence of compliance with this intent.
[Amended 10-21-1974 by L.L. No. 4-1974]
A. 
The service of orders hereunder may be made upon the owner or occupant of the premises either by delivering a copy thereof to such owner or occupant personally or by delivering such copy to any person in charge of the premises. In case no such person is found on the premises, service may be made by affixing a copy thereof upon a conspicuous part of the premises and by mailing an additional copy of such order to the owner at his last known address by registered mail.
B. 
Any such order shall forthwith be complied with by the owner or occupant of such premises or building; provided, however, that such owner or occupant may, within 24 hours, appeal to the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, who shall, within three days, review such order and file his decision thereon, and unless by his authority the order is revoked or modified, it shall remain in full force and be complied with within the time fixed in said order or decision of the Chief Engineer; provided, however, that any such owner or occupant may, after the revoking or affirming of any such order by the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, apply for a review of such order to the courts pursuant to Article 78 of the Civil Practice Act.
The Chief Engineer of the Fire Department shall have power to modify any of the provisions of this article upon application in writing by the owner, lessee or occupant, when there are practical difficulties in the may of carrying out the strict letter of this article, provided that the same are not inconsistent with the general intent of this article and public safety and substantial justice be done. Such modifications shall be in writing by the Chief Engineer.
A. 
In every multiple-family dwelling, office building, public hall, places of public assembly or such other places used by the public for business, fraternal, educational or social purposes, the owner shall provide a light or lights which shall be of not less than 15 watts or equivalent photometric rating for the vestibule and entrance hall and in every public hall, stair, fire stair and fire tower, on every floor and basement corridor. Such light or lights shall be located as prescribed by the department charged with the enforcement of this section. Except as hereinafter otherwise provided with respect to fire stairs, fire towers and in stairs, public halls and basement corridors without windows, every such light or lights shall be turned on by the owner or his agent at sunset every day and shall not be turned off by the owner or his agent until the following sunrise. Such light or lights shall be kept burning daily from sunset until sunrise, but if the same become extinguished and remain extinguished without the knowledge and consent of the owner he shall not be liable. The burden shall be upon the owner to show that said light or lights became and remained extinguished without the knowledge and consent of the owner or his agent. Every light in every fire stair and fire tower at every floor where there is no window opening to the outer air, and in every public hall and basement corridor where there is no window opening to the outer air, shall be kept burning continuously.
B. 
The light or lights in stair, fire stair, fire tower, public hall and basement corridor shall be so located that all portions of such stair, fire stair, fire tower, public hall or basement corridor shall be lighted.
C. 
This section shall apply to all multiple-family dwellings, office buildings, public halls, places of public assembly or such other places used by the public for business, fraternal, educational or social purposes now used for the above-mentioned purposes, as well as all buildings hereafter erected for said purposes.
Appropriate signs indicating the location of the nearest fire alarm box shall be installed at all entrances of all multiple dwellings and places of public assembly by the owner, tenant or person in charge of said building, said signs to be approved by the Bureau of Fire Prevention as to size, material, wording, place and manner of installation. No person or persons, firm, association or corporation shall refuse to permit the installation of such signs as provided herein, or shall remove any such sign so installed.
Any boiler room, fire room or cellar which has a depression in the floor, and any inside or outside grease pit, shall be properly guarded with metal rails or chains. All outside openings or areaways shall be protected with a grating at grade level or with a rail. It shall be the duty of the inspectors to investigate any such condition and to see that the provisions of this section are complied with. This section shall apply to all buildings, with the exception of one-family residences.
All trap doors in any factory or storage building shall be closed at the completion of the business of each day. Every outside window in any such building which opens directly on any hoistway or other vertical means of communication between two or more floors in such building shall be plainly marked with the word "Shaftway" in red letters at least six inches high on a white background, such warning sign to be so placed as to be easily discernible from the outside of the building. Every door or window opening on such shaftway from the interior of the building, unless the construction of the partition surrounding the shaftway is of such distinctive nature as to make the purpose evident at a glance, shall be similarly marked with the warning word "Shaftway" so placed to be easily visible to anyone approaching the shaftway from the interior of the building. Any open shaftway shall be properly protected by a suitable guardrail at all times.
Inflammable materials of whatever nature or texture shall not be used for decoration purposes in show windows, stores nor any place of public assembly unless such materials are first rendered flameproof in a manner acceptable to the enforcing officer; provided, however, that nothing herein shall be held to prohibit the display of salable goods, permitted and offered for sale, in stores. Electric light bulbs in stores or public halls shall not be decorated with paper or other combustible materials unless such materials shall first have been rendered flameproof.
All chimneys, smokestacks or similar devices for conveying smoke or hot gases to the outer air, and the stoves, furnaces, fireboxes or boilers to which they are connected, shall be maintained in such a manner as not to endanger property.