NFPA Journal - July/August 2020 - 42

ARE
YOU
SEEING
SEEING
THIS?
popular when things return to normal.
"I've definitely changed my opinion,"
Mikloiche said. "After we hit our 100th
remote inspection and everyone on
the team had done 10 to 15 each, I
said, 'You know, this is something
we're going to be using for a long time.
This is a new world, and we need to
embrace it.'"

OVERCOMING STIGMAS
While it's impossible to nail down
exactly how many building departments
have implemented RVI programs since
the pandemic struck, the anecdotal evidence suggests
NFPA.ORG/RVI
that interest has
Read "Conducting
swelled dramatiRemote Video
cally. An NFPA tip
Inspections," an
sheet for inspecNFPA white paper
on RVI.
tors looking to
start RVI proReview an NFPA
tip sheet for
grams has been
inspectors who are
downloaded hunconsidering RVI
dreds of times
programs for their
departments.
since March,
and a 2018 NFPA
Listen to an NFPA
Podcast on RVI
white paper on
that will air July 14.
the topic, "Conducting Remote Video Inspections," has
been downloaded more in the last three
months than it was over the previous
year and a half. Both can be found at
nfpa.org/rvi.
Meanwhile, a technical committee has been formed for a proposed
new standard, NFPA 915, Standard
on Remote Inspections. The NFPA
Standards Council has yet to decide
whether to start the proposed document by initiating a formal cycle and
beginning the work to create a first
draft. Thus far, the idea of a new standard on remote video inspections has
received largely positive public support,
and if allowed to move forward, a first
draft could be available for public comment later this year.
The sudden attention being paid to
RVI after years on the industry's fringes
has been encouraging to Jim Muir,
the top building official Clark County,
Washington, and chair of the NFPA
915 technical committee. Muir helped
pioneer RVI when he implemented it
in his sprawling county back in 2012
as a way of increasing the efficiency of

his small and overworked staff. Since
then, he's been an evangelist of sorts
for the practice, presenting on RVI at
numerous industry events around the
country, usually to curious but skeptical
audiences. "People generally say, 'That's
kind of neat,' but nobody ever starts
doing it," he said with a wry smile.
The biggest roadblock, he said, has
been the lingering perception among
inspectors that an inspection over a
screen can't possibly be as effective as
one conducted in person. Some also
fear that RVI could devalue the inspection process in the eyes of contractors
and the public. "There was worry that
people will think, 'How important can
this job be if the person doesn't even
need to go to the job site?'" Comeau
said. "That can lead to, 'Well, does it
even need to be done?'"
Those reservations still exist in
some quarters. "The word 'remote' followed by the word 'inspection' are two
completely different entities," wrote
a fire prevention officer in California,
responding to an NFPA call for public
input on the idea of creating a new
RVI standard. "By not doing a physical
inspection with your eyes and boots
on the ground, you will have no idea of
any potential life-altering issues that
you could be missing by relying on a
'remote' piece of paper, video, or data
submission."
Over the past two months, however,
it seems that those stigmas have been
overcome in many jurisdictions by the
need to continue working despite ongoing lockdowns. Muir's phone has been
ringing nonstop. "It's been a lot of calls
like, 'Hey, you brought up in that one
meeting that video thing you do. Can
you tell me a little bit more about what
do you guys do exactly?'" he said.

SURPRISING RESULTS
Although there are some high-tech
examples of remote inspection-such as
camera-mounted drones being used to
remotely inspect sites that are difficult
to access, or film crews shooting construction projects for inspectors in Abu
Dhabi-RVI has largely evolved into
a practice that can be done with the
everyday technology most people carry
in their pockets. In its simplest form,

PREVIOUS SPREAD: ADRIENNE ALBRECHT

Since the novel coronavirus started
spreading across the globe earlier this
year, the safety inspection sector, like
so many other industries, has been
forced to rethink how to operate in a
vastly changed landscape. Widespread
lockdowns have forced some inspectors away from job sites, threatening
to drastically slow the permitting for
construction projects large and small.
"In the middle of the shutdown, I was
hearing a lot of 'What are we going to
do? How can we keep things going?'"
said Nicole Comeau, a segment director
at NFPA who keeps close tabs on the
inspection industry.
The answer for many building departments has been remote video inspection,
or RVI, an idea that has been around for
nearly a decade but that, for an array of
reasons, has had few converts until now.
For inspectors used to running their
hands over joints, and seeing the welds,
connections, and wires with their own
eyes, the new hands-off approach has
been a learning curve but one that has
also shown promise. Departments that
have tried RVI report some unexpected
increases in efficiencies, added safety,
and in some cases even better visual
access to a project than a traditional
in-person approach can provide, advocates say.
Prior to the pandemic, Mikloiche
didn't think remote inspections were
something his department would do.
"It's not that I'm a dinosaur, but I've
been around 20 years as an electrical
inspector and was kind of intimidated
by the technology-and besides, my
average inspector is 60 years old," he
said. Then the virus hit, and RVI got his
attention. He now counts himself a convert, and he's not alone: as of late May,
West Hartford's five full-time inspectors
have completed more than 600 RVIs.
Mikloiche notes that the department
has the same inspection fail rate, about
8 percent, with RVI as it had with its
in-person inspections before coronavirus
hit, indicating that the switch hasn't
adversely affected inspection quality.
Despite its rapid implementation in
many jurisdictions in response to coronavirus, building officials and industry
followers are convinced that RVI is
here to stay and perhaps become more

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NFPA Journal - July/August 2020

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