NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 99

MIND THE GAP
The Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem Assessment Tool identifies
weak spots in community safety. More than 100 assessments have been
conducted worldwide, and several prevailing themes have emerged.
Among the questions and responses so far:
Does the community's
government provide
funding for fire prevention
and community risk
reduction activities?
44%
of respondents
answered NO
Source: NFPA
Does the community
have a sufficient
number of trained and
certified building, fire,
and electrical inspectors
to perform plan review
and inspection activities
in a manner considered
timely by the community?
44%
of respondents
answered NO
ability of the community to support
safety. And, like attempts to evaluate
capacity in other settings, the tool relies
on indicators to kick the tires of each
component of the ecosystem framework.
A major challenge in developing the
assessment tool is the fact that while
that framework applies universally, every
community is different, starting with the
question of what makes a community. Is
it New York City? Is it the Bronx? Within
the Bronx, is it Hunts Point or Pelham
Bay? Since it can be all of these things,
the tool allows the person performing
the assessment to decide the boundaries
of the area they are evaluating. Generally,
though, the questions pertain to the
requirements, resources, and practices
that apply across some sort of jurisdictional
boundary.
For example, one question the tool
asks is whether the community has a
sufficient number of trained or certified
fire safety inspectors to carry out
an inspection program. The concern
raised by union leaders to New York
City Council members following the
Bronx high-rise fire-that inspectors
who might have examined the building
had been reassigned to other
duties-suggests there weren't enough
boots on the ground to satisfy the
safety needs of central Bronx. While the
assessment tool isn't granular enough
to pinpoint a particular building or city
block where the next fire will occur, it
can help identify the larger weaknesses
in the systems responsible for those
city blocks-such as, in the case of the
The assessment tool
isn't granular enough to
pinpoint a particular
building or city block where
the next fire will occur, but
it can help identify the
larger weaknesses in the
systems responsible for
those city blocks.
Bronx, an inspectional force stretched
thin by unexpected demands. Users of
the assessment tool will have the best
understanding of how big, or how small,
that scope of responsibility should be.
Just as the tool tries to be scalable,
it also tries to be generic, referring
as much as possible to the functions
Are the codes in use
in the community free
from amendments
to weaken them by
removing safety
provisions?
50%
of respondents
answered NO
Are there laws or
regulations in the
community that require
a land use planning
and approval process
to avoid development
in areas at risk from
natural or man-made
hazards?
40%
of respondents
answered NO
that support different ecosystem components.
It's also designed to avoid
terminology drawn from any one
country's system. For example, in the
United States, fire code enforcement in
many cities is the responsibility of the
fire department or the fire marshal. In
other countries, fire code enforcement
responsibilities may be located in a special
division of the police department.
The important thing is whether there is
an authority with primary responsibility
for ensuring that businesses and other
occupancies adhere to the code. As a
result, the tool simply asks: Does the
community have a designated authority
responsible for enforcing fire and life
safety codes? Similarly, the tool wants to
know what power that authority has to
pursue code compliance. Can they access
private property to perform inspections?
Are they empowered to issue fines and
citations? Can they order the closure of
a premises if they find conditions that
threaten life safety? Without authorities
like these, a community's capacity to
prevent fires and loss of life and property
is diminished.
While the assessment tool is intended
to provide a snapshot of a community's
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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