Fire Prevention Code - Ordinance 4 of 1964

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AN ORDINANCE ADOPTING A FIRE PREVENTION CODE PRESCRIBING REGULATIONS GOVERNING CONDITIONS HAZARDOUS TO LIFE AND PROPERTY FROM FIRE AND EXPLOSION; PROVIDING FOR ITS ENFORCEMENT: PRESCRIBING PENALTIES AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

THAT WHEREAS, the City of Emmet, Arkansas has no Fire Prevention Code prescribing regulations governing conditions hazardous to life and property of the inhabitants of the City of Emmet, Arkansas and has no designated authority to enforce such a code for fire prevention, and the City is now in dire need of a Fire Prevention Code and some designated authority to enforce same.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EMMET, ARKANSAS:-

Section 1) DEFINITION Wherever the word “municipality” is used in the Code hereby adopted it shall be held to mean the City of Emmet, Arkansas.

Section 2) ADOPTION OF FIRE PREVENTION CODE There is hereby adopted by the City Council for the purpose of prescribing regulations governing conditions hazardous to life and property from fire and explosion, that certain code known as the Fire Prevention Code, Abbreviated Edition, recommended by the National Board of Fire Underwriters, being particularly the 1960 Edition with 1961 Amendments and Corrections, thereof, and the whole thereof, of which code not less than three (3) copies have been and are now filed in the office of the Recorder of the City of Emmet, Arkansas and the same are hereby adopted and incorporated in this Ordinance as fully as if set out word for word herein, and from the date on which this Ordinance shall take effect, the provisions thereof shall be controlling within the limits of the City of Emmet, Arkansas.

Section 3) ENFORCEMENT The code hereby adopted shall be enforced by the Chief of the Fire Department or in the absence thereof by the City Marshall.

Section 4) TERRITORIAL LIMITS The limits referred to in Section 73 of the code hereby adopted in which storage of flammable liquids in outside aboveground tanks is prohibited, the limits referred to in Section 103 of the code hereby adopted, in which bulk storage of liquidfied petroleum gas is restricted, and the limits referred to in section 53 (b) of the code hereby adopted, in which storage of explosives and blasting agents is prohibited are hereby established as follows:

Within 200 yards of any occupied building or any part of the City of Emmet, Arkansas now platted in Lots or Blocks as shown by the official plat thereof recorded in the Office of the Recorder of Nevada County, Arkansas.

SECTION 5) MODIFICATIONS The Chief of the Fire Department or other enforcement officer serving in his stead shall have the power to modify any of the provisions of the code hereby adopted upon application in writing by the Owner or Lessee, or his duly authorized agent, when there are practical difficulties in the way of carrying out the strict letter of the code, provided that the spirit of the code shall always be observed, public safety secured and assured and substantial justice done. The particulars of such modification, when granted or allowed and the decision of the enforcing officer thereon shall be entered upon the records of the City and a signed copy shall be furnished the applicant. 

Section 6) APPEALS Whenever the Chief of the Fire Department or other enforcing officer shall disapprove an application or refuse to grant a permit applied for, or when it is claimed that the provisions of the code do not apply or that the true intent and meaning of the code has been misconstrued or wrongly interpreted, the applicant may appeal from the decision of the Chief of the Fire Department or other enforcing officer to the City Council, within 30 days from the date of the decision appealed.

Section 7) PENALTIES (a) Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of the code hereby adopted or fail to comply therewith, or who shall violate or fail to comply with any order made thereunder, or who shall build in violation of any detailed statement of specifications or plans submitted and approved thereunder, or any certificate or permit issued thereunder, and from which no appeal has been taken, or who shall fail to comply with such an order as affirmed by the City Council or by a court of competent jurisdiction, within the time fixed herein, shall severally for each and every such violation and non-compliance respectively be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than $50.00 and no more than $150.00 for each offense or by imprisonment for not less than 10 days and no more than 30 days or by both fine and imprisonment.

The imposition of one penalty for any violation shall not excuse the violation or permit it to continue, but all such persons shall be required to correct or remedy such violation or violations or defect or defects within a reasonable time; and when such time is not otherwise specified, each ten days that the prohibited condition, defect or violation are maintained or continued shall constitute a separate offense.

(b) The application of the above penalty shall not be held to prevent the enforced removal of prohibited conditions or prevent the obtaining of a mandatory injunction for that purpose. 

Section 8) REPEAL OF CONFLICTING ORDINANCES All Ordinances or parts of Ordinances in conflict with or inconsistent with any provision of this Ordinance are hereby repealed.

Section 9) VALIDITY The City Council hereby declares that if any section, paragraph, sentence, word or part of this Ordinance or of the Code hereby adopted be declared for any reason to be invalid, such invalidity shall not render the remaining parts thereof invalid, as it is the declared intent of the City Council that it would have passed all other parts of this Ordinance independent of the elimination therefrom of any part hereof as may be declared invalid.

Section 10) EMERGENCY The City Council does hereby find that there is an immediate need for a Fire Prevention Code for the City of Emmet, Arkansas, and this Ordinance thus being necessary for the preservation of the peace, health, safety and general welfare of the inhabitants of the City of Emmet, Arkansas, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, and this Ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage and approval.

PASSED AND APPROVED on this  day of 19 

Otis Townsend (Found on file) 

ATTEST:  MAYOR

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RECORDER

STATE OF ARKANSAS

CERTIFICATE

COUNTY OF NEVADA

I, the undersigned, duly elected, qualified and acting Recorder, of and for the City of Emmet, Arkansas, do hereby certify that the above and foregoing is a true and correct copy of an Ordinance duly passed and approved on the date shown thereon, in meeting of the City Council, duly called, with notice to all members, with a quorum present and voting, by a vote of two-thirds or more of the members- elect voting in favor of its passage.

CERTIFIED under my hand as such Recorder and under the seal of the City on this day of 19 

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(SEAL) RECORDER