Chapter 4 - Fire Protection and Prevention

Chapter 4 - Fire Protection and Prevention

ARTICLE 1 - Organization of Fire Department

 

4.0101 Establishment

The fire department of Lakota Fire Protection District, Nelson County, State of North Dakota, is hereby designated as the official fire department for the City of Lakota, and as created thereto, such department is hereby continued, consisting of a chief, and such other members of said fire department as may from time to time be provided.  Members shall be appointed in the manner provided by law.

4.0102 Supervision

The fire chief shall have the control, subject to the order and direction of the governing body, of the fire department and all fire apparatus; whenever any fire apparatus needs repairing said fire chief shall cause the same to be done without delay.

4.0103 Duties

The fire chief shall have the following rights and powers:

1.  To command and control.  It shall be the duty of the chief of the department to preserve order and discipline at all times in the department, and to require strict compliance with the ordinances of the city relating to his department and the rules and regulations pertaining thereto.  At all fires he shall have sole and absolute control and command over all persons connected with the fire department.

2.  To keep property in good condition to see that all apparatus and property committed to his care and the several buildings or portions thereof are kept clean and in good sanitary condition.

3.  To have charge of the alarm system of the city.

4.  To control crowds at fires.  The chief of the fire department may prescribe limits in the vicinity of any fire within which no persons, except those who reside therein, firemen and policemen, and those admitted by his order.

5.  To order the removal of property, whenever it shall become necessary for the preservation of such property from fire or to prevent the spreading of fire, or to protect adjoining property.

6.  To command assistance from persons in attendance at any fire, not members of the fire department, for the extinguishing of fires.

7.  To prescribe badge and uniform to be worn by the officers and men of the department.

4.0104 Police Powers

All members of the fire department of the city, while on active duty, shall have the powers of policemen on duty and are authorized to arrest any person or persons who shall interfere or attempt to interfere with or hinder any member of the department in the performance of his duty.

4.0105 Unlawful to Hinder Department

It shall be unlawful for any person to prevent, interfere with, or in any manner hinder the fire department, or any member thereof, while engaged in the discharge of duty at a fire, or to disobey any lawful command of the chief or acting chief of the department.

4.0106 Right of Way

Any engine, truck or apparatus belonging to the fire department shall, going to or returning from a fire, have the right-of-way in all streets, alleys and public places over any automobile or other vehicle of any kind whatever, and any person in charge of any such vehicle must stop the same when necessary to permit any engine, truck or apparatus of the fire department to pass without hindrance or delay.

4.0107 Driving Over Fire Hoses

No person shall drive any automobile or other vehicle of any kind whatever, upon or over any hose belonging to the fire department while the same is laid in the streets and alleys of the city.

4.0108 False Alarms

It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to give or cause to be given any false alarm of fire, or to give or cause to be given, while a fire is in progress, a second or general alarm, for the same fire, or tamper or set off any fire alarm or signal box with like intent; or tamper, meddle, or interfere with any such fire alarm box, or intentionally cut, break, deface or remove any such box, or any of the wires or supports thereof, connected with the fire alarm system, or interfere with or injure any property of any kind belonging to or used by the fire department; or hinder or delay any apparatus or equipment or vehicle belonging to the fire department.

4.0109 Taking Fire Equipment

No person shall take, receive, or attempt to receive or take from the possession and control of any member of the fire department, any of the apparatus, tools or property belonging to said department, without the written consent of the chief of the fire department. 

4.0110 Entering Fire Department

No person shall occupy any rooms in any building which are used exclusively by the fire department, or enter such rooms or handle any apparatus used by the fire department without permission.

4.0111 Service Outside Corporate Limits

Members of the fire department are authorized to go outside the fire district limits for the purpose of rendering aid to other fire departments, or of extinguishing fires or rendering aid in the case of accidents, provided that the fire department shall not render such service outside the corporate limits excepting upon orders of the chief of the fire department or the assistant chief.

ARTICLE 2 - Fire Limits

4.0201 Fire Limits

There will be two Fire Districts in the City of Lakota.  Fire District No. 1 is that area enclosed by one half block each side of Main Street from railroad tracks to "C" Avenue.    Fire District No. 2 is that area within the city limits of Lakota not included in Fire District No. 1.  New construction in Fire District No. 1 shall be masonry. 

4.0202 Repairs

It shall be unlawful in Fire District No. 1 to repair any existing frame building within the fire limits after the same has been damaged  by any cause to fifty (50) per cent of its value.  Any existing frame building in the fire limits may be brick veneered.  Any frame building damaged over 50% if its value shall be torn down and removed.

ARTICLE 3 - Fires in Public Places

4.0301 Smoking

Any person who, by smoking or attempting to light or to smoke cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or tobacco in any manner, in which lighters or matches are employed who shall in any careless, negligent or reckless manner whatsoever, whether willfully or wantonly or not, set fire to any furniture, curtains, drapes, household fittings, or furnishings whatsoever in any hotel, or any public rooming house, tenement house, or any public building, so as to endanger life or property in any way or to any extent shall be guilty of violating this article.

4.0302 Notice

A plainly printed notice shall be posted in a conspicuous place in each sleeping room of all hotels, public rooming houses, lodging houses and other places of public assemblage within the City of Lakota, advising tenants of the provisions of this chapter.

4.0303 Reports

Every fire of any kind, and from whatever source, occurring in or about any hotel, rooming house, lodging house or apartment hotel in the City of Lakota shall be reported immediately to the fire department.

ARTICLE 4 - Fire Prevention

4.0401 Adoption of Fire Code

There is hereby adopted by the City of Lakota for the purpose of prescribing regulations governing conditions hazardous to life and property from fire or explosion, that certain code known as the State Fire Code and the whole thereof, save and except such portions as are hereinafter deleted, modified or amended, of which code not less than one (1) copy have been and are filed in the office of the auditor of the city and the same are hereby adopted and incorporated as fully as if set out at length herein.

The fee for any permit or license required by the said fire prevention code, where no other license or permit fee is fixed elsewhere in the city ordinances, shall be the sum of $5.00 to be paid to the chief of the fire prevention and by him to be paid into the City Treasury without delay.

4.0402 Establishment of Bureau of Fire Prevention

1.  The fire prevention code shall be enforced by the bureau of fire prevention in the City of Lakota which is hereby established and which shall be operated under the supervision of the chief of the fire department.

2.  The chief of the fire department may detail such members of the fire department as inspectors as shall from time to time be necessary.

4.0403 Storage of Flammable Liquids

No new bulk plants or tanks for storage of flammable liquids shall be permitted within the limits of the city except in areas approved by the City Council.

4.04031

That the storage and handling of liquefied petroleum gases in the City of Lakota shall be governed by the standards for the storage and handling of liquefied petroleum gases adopted by the National Fire Protection Association.

4.04032

That the City of Lakota, North Dakota, hereby adopts in its entirety the Pamphlet "NFPA No. 58-1955 as amended" adopted and published by the National Fire Protection Association for the storage and handling of liquefied petroleum gases.

4.0404 Storage of Liquefied Petroleum

The limits or area for storage of liquefied petroleum shall comply with the limits established in section 4.04031.

4.0405 Modifications of Fire Code

The chief of the bureau of fire prevention shall have power to modify any of the provisions of the fire prevention code upon application in writing by the owner or lessee, or his duly authorized agent, when there are practical difficulties in the way of carrying out the strict letter of the code, provided that the spirit of the code shall be observed, public safety secured, and substantial justice done.  The particulars of such modification when granted or allowed and the decision of the chief of the bureau of fire prevention thereon shall be entered upon the records of the department and a signed copy shall be furnished to the applicant.

4.0406 Appeals

Whenever the chief of the fire department shall disapprove an application or refuse to grant a license or permit applied for, or when it is claimed that the provisions of the code do not apply or that the true intent and meaning of the code have been misconstrued or wrongly interpreted, the applicant may appeal from the decision of the chief of the fire department to the governing body within 30 days from the date of the decision of the appeal.

4.0407 Penalties

Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of the code hereby adopted or fail to comply therewith, or who shall violate or fail to comply with any order made thereunder, or who shall build in violation of any detailed statement of specifications or plans submitted and approved thereunder, or any certificate or permit issued thereunder, and from which no appeal has been taken, or who shall fail to comply with such an order as affirmed or modified by the governing body or by a court of competent jurisdiction, within the time fixed herein, shall severely for each and every such violation and noncompliance respectively, be guilty of a class B misdemeanor.  The imposition of one penalty for any violation shall not excuse the violation or permit it to continue; and all such persons shall be required to correct or remedy such violations or defects within a reasonable time; and when not otherwise specified, each ten days that prohibited conditions are maintained shall constitute a separate offense.

The application of the above penalty shall not be held to prevent the enforced removal of prohibited conditions.