SD7 - The Feasibility and Need for Requiring Certain Facilities to be Equipped with Fire Suppression Systems

  • Published: 1991
  • Author: Board of Housing and Community Development
  • Enabling Authority: Senate Joint Resolution 1 (Regular Session, 1990)

Executive Summary:
Senate Bill 1, Senate Bill 369, House Bill 790, and Senate Joint Resolution 1 were enacted by the 1990 General Assembly in response to a tragic nursing home fire which killed 12 elderly patients and forced the evacuation of 96 others. Senate Bill 1 amends § 32.1-126.2 of the Code of Virginia to prohibit the Commissioner of the Department of Health from issuing, or renewing, a license for any nursing home or nursing facility after January 1, 1993 unless it is equipped with a fire suppression system which meets the standards promulgated by the Board of Housing and Community Development. Senate Bill 369, and House Bill 790, amend § 36-99.5 of the Code of Virginia to require the Board of Housing and Community Development to establish standards for requiring the installation of smoke detectors in nursing homes and nursing facilities.

Senate Joint Resolution 1 states in part;

"Whereas, the concern and sorrow created by the disastrous fire in 1989 has generated the need for a careful examination of the many issues related to fire suppression systems; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the Board of Housing and Community Development is hereby requested to study the feasibility and need for equipping certain buildings with automatic sprinkler systems. As part of its study the Board is requested to identify the number of buildings used as hospitals, nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, homes for adults, congregate facilities which house the elderly and handicapped adults, and child-caring institutions that are not equipped with fire suppression systems; to examine the fire safety record of such institutions and facilities; to determine any structural problems with installation of fire suppression systems in these facilities and institutions; to estimate the cost of retrofitting these facilities with recommended systems; and to identify any other methods or systems deemed appropriate for increasing the fire safety of these facilities."

This report contains the findings and recommendations of the Board of Housing and Community Development which resulted from the study, and includes a description of the final regulations that were adopted in response to Senate Bills 1 and 369, and House Bill 790.