In the wake of a District apartment building fire that displaced nearly 200 residents, Montgomery County fire chiefs said nearly all of the roughly 2,000 apartment buildings they have inspected since June have had some form of safety violation.
Fire officials were asked by county leaders last year to beef up code enforcement efforts. The process has been more time-consuming and the results more disturbing then they initially assumed, fire department leaders said. Problems range from the basic, accidental issues such as a smoke detector that’s out of batteries, to intentional malfeasance such as disconnected sprinkler systems.
Even Bethesda’s tony Promenade Towers, which bills itself as “Bethesda’s premier luxury high-rise community,” has run afoul of safety codes. Assistant Fire Chief Mike Hamilton said fire officials required owners of the building, one of two Bethesda high-rises ravaged by fire last fall, to employ a private security firm to be on “fire watch” for a couple weeks this winter while the building upgraded its fire alarm system.
The older building had a fire alarm system that needed to be upgraded, and while inspecting the property, fire officials discovered workers had accidentally left the system disabled.
Hamilton said fire officials face several choices when they see violations — they can fine an owner $250 to $500 depending on the severity of the violation, evacuate residents until systems are fixed or require management to hire a private security firm to be on the lookout for fires until the building is deemed safe.
“We’re wary about putting 2,000 residents out on the street, but at the same time, we want things to be safe,” Hamilton said. “Our main goal is code compliance, and sometimes we find that instead of hitting owners with a fine, we get quicker results if we have them hire a security firm that can run thousands of dollars a day to employ.”
Code enforcement personnel said because there are so many problems, the inspections process is taking longer than planned since every time a problem is found, officials must make a return visit to ensure it has been addressed.
“If 100 percent of buildings have violations, that means a lot of people in this county are at risk,” council member Marc Elrich said. “This speaks to thefact that property owners have been taking advantage of the fact that there weren’t a lot of inspections done in the past.”
