Metropolitan rules may not be relevant for rural fire fighting

By Rick Sherman

A wildland fire protection rule that rural Utah counties found expensive and irrelevant has been revised to give more authority to suit local needs.
Carbon County has authority to adjust the rules to better suit local needs. That was the message from State Deputy Fire Marshall Ted Black at the October 20 meeting of the Carbon County Commission. He was talking about the State Wildland-Urban Interface Code. Black said last year, state officials began to see and hear some that the 2006 code was not meeting the needs of the counties. There were problems with the interpretation of the code, and some minor changes were called for.
Black has toured the state to clarify the language and intent of the code. “When this law was passed it was not, uh, well-received by most of the counties,” he stated.
Black proffered a revised ordinance that has been adopted by most of the rural counties in Utah. “What you have before you is a sample ordinance that hopefully can just slide right into your ordinance if you choose to adopt this,” he said. He said it is an unusual ordinance as it applies to codes because the county has full authority to adopt part of it, all of it or none of it. And counties have the ability to make modifications relevant to their county needs.
The code previously required fire apparatus access roads to have an all-weather surface in order for firefighters to respond. That wording has been changed to “approved” roads, and approved means it is acceptable to the local jurisdiction.
Black said that doesn’t really make sense as many of our wildland roads in Utah and under snow for much of the year. He continued, “Does it make sense that we apply rules that really were intended to be used within the city limits, municipalities and that? So what we’re suggesting is that if this road has been used multiple times to fight wildland fire, it’s appropriate for wildland fire equipment. If it’s acceptable to this body, then it’s an approved road.”
One of the issues that has been specifically noted as a problem with the Wildland-Urban Interface code is that is is overly restrictive to the construction of small structures like a line shack a rancher may use during the lambing or calving seasons. The sample ordinance addresses the problem by adding this exception to the code: a structure that is no more than 1,000 square feet, with the required defensible space and without reasonable access to a municipal, or similar water system.
Another exception was written to allow someone adding a small addition to a cabin, such as a bedroom and a bath, to make that addition and not be required to meet all of the requirements of the WUI code as long as it is acceptable to the building official, fire official, or authority having jurisdiction.
Black noted the definition of jurisdiction places authority with the county, “So authority to enforce this is where it ought to be.”