Douglas County looking at automatic sprinkler ordinance at commissioner meeting

Submitted by paula on Thu, 04/04/2019 - 12:56pm

STATELINE, Nev. - The Douglas County Commissioners will be considering the adoption of a new fire code which would require the installation of automatic fire sprinklers on new construction of homes less than 5,000 square feet. Their approval would acknowledge that benefits outweigh the cost to homeowners.

The meeting in Minden, which starts at 1:00 p.m., is normally fed live through the internet but as of 10:00 a.m. there were some technical difficulties and it may not be shown online.

There has been some confusion on the subject according to Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District Fire (TDFPD) Marshall Eric Guevin. He said the vacation home rental giant had sent out an email, telling people the County was going to require sprinklers in all vacation rentals.

Vacation homes in Tahoe Township (the Lake Tahoe portion of Douglas County) must get a fire inspection from a certified fire inspector (TDFPD), but sprinklers are not required on existing homes.

The latest figures show there are 639 vacation home rentals (VHRs) in Tahoe Township according to figures compiled by Host Compliance, the company hired to bring VHR owners into compliance with the VHR ordinance.

Of those homes, two are above 10,000 square feet in size and have occupancy rates of over 20. One home in Edgewood Canyon off Kingsbury Grade sleeps 20, and another on Holly Lane in Lake Village sleeps 26. The average occupancy rate is 10.3 per home.

East Fork Fire Protection District has requested the County consider requiring automatic sprinklers in new homes that are more than 1,000 feet from a fire hydrant or other water source. They are not asking for sprinklers in existing VHRs as well.

The commissioners will also be voting on adopting the 2018 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code for the Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District. If adopted the code will lay out requirements for defensible space and tree pruning, among other fire safety elements.

See agenda here: http://douglascountynv.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=14&ID=2646&Inline=True. When working, meetings can be viewed online at http://douglascountynv.iqm2.com/Citizens/Default.aspx.