Current Fire Prevention Initiatives
To help you prepare for successful inspections and a safe year, we are sharing our current fire prevention areas of emphasis.
- Restoring dangerous buildings to safe and code compliant conditions is a top priority. There has been a surge of fires in vacant buildings in recent years. There were 77 fires in vacant buildings in 2021, 91 in 2022 and 130 in 2023. As of April 15, there have been 30 fires in vacant buildings this year1. On February 26, 2023, March 27, 2023 and July 24, 2023, three people died in vacant building fires in Seattle.
- Avoiding "false" or preventable alarms is another top priority. SFD writes citations to properties that have two or more false alarms in a calendar year quarter. For example, the first quarter of 2024 includes the months January to March.
- Ensuring fire alarms, sprinklers and other systems are properly maintained so they work when you need them. SFD is tracking over 27,000 fire protection systems in Seattle. We work with property owners and contractors to ensure these systems receive annual inspections an all required repairs.
Take steps to prepare for your building inspection with Client Assistance Memorandum 5969 - Fire Safety Building Inspections or learn about our code compliance process.
1The Fire Department began tracking vacant building fires in July 2020. In 2020, from July to December, there were 20 vacant building fires.