Plan Review and Permitting:

The Fire Prevention Division performs review of all permitted commercial and multifamily construction projects to ensure compliance with the Florida Fire Prevention Code. This includes new buildings, interior remodel of existing occupancies, development order site plans, and various fire suppression systems. The number of plan reviews for 2008 decreases because of the economy. Plan reviews in 2007 totaled 1,173 and dropped to 809 in 2008.

New Construction Inspections:

The Fire Prevention Division is involved with multifamily residential, commercial and fire protection system permits by conducting plan review and fire inspections during construction.

New construction inspections assure code compliance of individual components of construction throughout the building process. Examples of components include fire rated walls, fire sprinkler piping, liquid propane tanks and piping.

The Fire Prevention staff completed a total of 4,797 new construction inspections in 2008, which reflected a decrease of 3,821 from 2007. The Use/Occupancy inspections that reflect new business were down slightly from 2007. The Division also inspects the installation of fire alarm and fire sprinkler systems in single-family homes.

Existing Occupancy:

In 2008 there was a slight increase of occupancies to inspect. However, there was a reduction of the number of occupancy types due to eliminating or condensing. Meaning, "executive suites" that were combined under one occupancy inspection, instead of having individual 100-200 square foot offices to inspect. This move did not provide any significant impact to the District, but helped to provide efficiency for the Fire Prevention staff.

In 2005, out staff inspected occupancies in an 18-month interval. in 2006, staff was increased to accommodate an annual of 12-month inspection period that went from December to December of each year. In 2008, we modified the inspection period to be done in that specific calendar year, thus inspecting all occupancies in a 12-month period.