The September blaze that ravaged Mount Airy?s Main Street has prompted town leaders to take steps to toughen fire codes.
Oscar Baker, a town planning commissioner, said the local codes, adopted 45 years ago, desperately need to be updated.
“Nobody?s looked at these things for years,” Baker said. “We?ll really just try and modernize it.”
Baker, who started a committee to look at the codes, said two 80-year-old buildings destroyed by the blaze could have been saved if they had had sprinklers.
And he wants to see a law requiring sprinklers at every business in town.
The town has had a history of devastating fires. A Main Street blaze in the 1960s burned down an old mill, and virtually all of Main Street?s buildings burned down twice in the 1920s, leading to the creation of the town?s fire company, Mayor Frank Johnson said.
Along with the lack of sprinklers, authorities said, power lines hindered firefighters battling the September blaze, which caused $4 million in damage.
Firefighters said they could have gotten closer to the flames sooner if they didn?t have to wait for utility workers to cut the lines across Main Street.
Both Main Street buildings destroyed in the fire have been razed.
Power lines will be placed behind the new Main Street buildings, said Dalia Schulman, head of the Mount Airy Main Street Association.
The fire committee is to meet Dec. 10.
Fire committee members
» Oscar Baker, town planning commissioner
» Ken Estabrook, town planning commissioner
» Lindey Brown, town planning commissioner
» Kelly Ziad, town planner
» County permits representative
» County safety office representative
» State fire marshal representative
