State Fire Marshal Larry L. Flowers is pleased to announce the initiation of the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of State Fire Marshal’s (SFM) administrative rule update process for the 2011 Ohio Fire Code (OFC) and associated SFM rules (also known as Ohio Administrative Code sections 1301:7-7- 01 through 1301:7-7-47). The targeted effective date of the new OFC will be early in 2017, which will match that of the next major update to the Ohio Building Code.
Similar to the last major revision of the Ohio Fire Code, this process will encompass:
- an open petition period (October 6, 2015 – November 20, 2015) for all OFC stakeholders to submit petitions to modify the existing provisions of the 2011 OFC;
- a publication in January 2016 of the SFM’s responses to the filed petitions and the release of a draft of the proposed 2017 OFC. The draft proposed 2017 OFC will incorporate all accepted petitions and an update of the baseline provisions of the current OFC to integrate relevant text of the 2015 International Fire Code;
- an open comment period on the draft 2017 OFC. This period will also include stakeholder meetings for major stakeholders to discuss the 2017 OFC directly with the SFM;
- further updating the draft 2017 OFC based upon the comments received and additional stakeholder input; and
- the formal rule adoption process for the 2017 OFC, including the Common Sense Initiative review and JCARR process.
For interested stakeholders, the SFM will hold a public forum and “kick-off” meeting wherein the SFM will provide an overview of the rulemaking process, effective petition and comment writing, and the internal procedures that the SFM will utilize to revise the OFC. This meeting will focus on code development procedures and is not intended to be a substantive discussion of changes to specific rules. The kick-off meeting will be open to the public and all stakeholders and interested parties are encouraged to attend. The meeting will be held at 10:30 AM, on Tuesday October 6, 2015, at the Division of State Fire Marshal, 8895 East Main Street, Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068. In addition to the attached comprehensive description of the SFM’s upcoming rulemaking process, further details about the kick-off meeting, other future rule related meeting dates, updates regarding procedures for and the status of the OFC update process, and proposed OFC related rule/hearing information can be found on the SFM’s website (http://www.com.ohio.gov/fire/) or by contacting the Division of State Fire Marshal’s Code Enforcement Bureau at 8895 East Main Street, Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068 (614.728.5460) or at [email protected].