What are the Licensing requirements regarding fire inspections, and why am I hearing so many concerns about fire inspections recently?
Licensing requires foster homes to comply with all applicable fire, health, and safety laws, ordinances, and regulations. Licensing requires fire inspections to be conducted by a government authority or local fire official, since these persons have the expertise to conduct the best assessment of a home’s fire safety. However, if no government authority or local fire official is available to conduct an inspection, foster homes can use the DFPS Fire Prevention Checklist. Licensing also requires foster homes to have smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. Local fire officials must enforce the fire code adopted by the State Fire Marshal’s office, but may choose to adopt a code that requires even higher standards of safety. Recently, the State Fire Marshal’s office adopted the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Life Safety Code. This code categorizes certain foster homes as “residential board and care facilities” and may require of them additional fire safety measures such as int
