By Doug Nelson, State Fire Marshal
This month, I want to take a moment to remind everyone of some of the big things going on with the fire service. Fire reporting, legislative session, updates on projects, and upcoming fire school are some of the big things to watch out for over the next month.
NFIRS
The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) is going away, so we will be working toward transitioning all fire departments to the new platform throughout the year. With NFIRS shutting down over the next year, we have to wrap up all 2024 incidents early this year. We will be sending out reminders and reaching out to fire departments who are not reporting yet for 2024 over the next two months. All 2024 incidents have to be entered and released to NFIRS by April 30th, 2025. Until your fire department is notified to transition, please continue reporting fires into NFIRS as normal.
Legislative Session
The legislative session is bustling along. There are a number of bills that the State Fire Marshal’s Office is involved in and watching. SB 2340 proposes studying the evolving challenges for the North Dakota fire service to determine how the best way to respond in the future is. This study is an opportunity to look at organization, operations, preparation, and funding for large-scale fire service emergencies. SB 2090 is an update to language from ND Century Code 18-01 and includes minor adjustments with no significant changes to authority or scope of work. HB 1086 is a bill to increase our ability to spend out of a fund that is currently dedicated to fire-safe cigarette fees. SB 2336 is a bill that establishes an elevator (people lift type, not grain) code, inspector, and permitting program under the authority of the ND Electrical Board. The State Fire Marshal’s Office supports all of these bills intended to produce positive changes in the fire and safety efforts in the state.
Please make sure you are staying up to date on the legislative session by following bills on Legislative Council’s website. You can tune into to any committee hearings there, too. Don’t forget about Friday meetings at 10:00 for the ND Fire Chief’s Association updates.
We are continuing our outreach by working outside of our silo with local jurisdictions and other state agencies. With the Division of Food and Lodging, we continue to work together to provide a consistent approach to safety regulation throughout jurisdictions. We are working to improve the mobile food truck processes to ensure proper fire safety items, including kitchen hood suppression systems. We are planning for and working to have a draft guide or data sheet outlining the fire service’s and health licensing unit’s approach to enforcing fire codes with mobile food trucks ready by summer.
We are also working on guides for temporary use of a structure as a homeless shelter and for lithium-ion batteries. We hope to have these completed within the month. We are working with partners in the shelter organizations, the Department of Environmental Quality, local homeless shelters, and local fire marshals to create these documents/guides. Keep up to date with the various guides and fact sheets we are working on producing at our website here.
Delegation of Authority
One program that we run in partnership with some of our local jurisdictions is the delegation of authority. This program under NDCC 18-01-03.2 allows local jurisdictions to conduct fire marshal responsibilities in State Buildings and Schools. Over the last year, we have identified that state buildings, through an Attorney General’s Opinion from the mid-1990s, do not have to comply with local jurisdiction processes or procedures (specifically local building code permitting). What has re-emerged is that this has prevented some of our jurisdictions from signing the delegation of authority due to state buildings in their jurisdiction not following the local building permitting processes. Throughout the last year, I have worked with fire chiefs, state building representatives, the Insurance Department, and assistant attorneys general to resolve this. We have had multiple meetings, I have briefed my agency on what it would take if the delegation of authority is not carried out, and brainstormed solutions. Right now, we don’t have a consensus solution but we are still continuing to brainstorm so that we can hopefully find a permanent solution to this issue that has been ongoing for over three decades. I am committed to helping all fire departments and ensuring fire safety continues as a priority in North Dakota. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this issue.
With the busy winter, please remember to register for fire school through the North Dakota Firefighters Association. This is some of the best hands on and classroom training for our state each year. Hope to see you there!