At 6 p.m. on Monday June 6, the Osage Beach Fire Protection District's Board of Directors will hold a public hearing on the recommendations made by a special committee in response to an August 4, 2015, fire at Compass Pointe Condominiums.
This hearing will be held to allow the public to weigh-in on the recommendations the committee has made for changes in the district's fire regulations. The hearing will be held at 6 p.m., Monday, June 6, at the School of the Osage High School Cummings Auditorium on Missouri 42 in Osage Beach.
The proposed changes would apply to current fire safety requirements for multifamily dwellings such as condominiums and apartment buildings. The meeting is a public hearing only, and no action by the Board of Directors will take place at that time.
The list of recommendations presented to the Board of Directors for consideration are as follows:
Provide emergency lighting and exit signs where required.
Provide public education for property managers and homeowners associations
Provide fire alarm systems for each dwelling unit.
Require a minimum of one smoke detector and one alarm per dwelling unit.
Alarm alerts to service entire buildings.
Provide heat detectors at exterior exits.
Require manual fire alarm systems for all multi-family complexes more than three stories high and/or with more than 16 dwelling units per building.
Enforce open cooking device regulations that restrict cooking on a combustible deck or within a minimum of 10 feet from any combustible surface that does not have an automatic fire suppression system.
Where smoking is permitted, require non-combustible ash trays in all public spaces.
Enforce fueled equipment restrictions in and under multi-dwelling unit buildings.
Recommendations for required enforcement by the local homeowners and property associations:
Evacuation Plans posted in each unit utilized for less than 30-day rentals.
Provide an emergency guide in each unit.
Create smoking restrictions and in areas where smoking permitted post information that disposal of smoking materials that create a fire through negligence endangering the safety of persons or property is unlawful.
Provide fire extinguishers on each level of multi-unit buildings at egress stairwells.
Maintenance of sprinkler and fire alarms by qualified contractors to be required.
Carbon monoxide detectors and alarms to be provided in all dwelling units.
Exterior egress stairwells to be separated from the interior of buildings where there is only one stairwell and the building is more than two stories above exit discharge site.
Enforce concealed space storage restrictions.
Suggested recommendations for additional life safety measures:
Provide fire suppressions systems on stairwells in buildings without sprinkler systems.
For more information about the hearing, contact the Osage Beach Fire Protection District at 573-348-1221