New law aims to take politics out of fire restrictions


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SALT LAKE CITY — More people will have a voice on fire restrictions this year, thanks to a new law that, in part, aims to remove the influence of politics from those decisions.

"Fire officials said, 'You know what, if my mayor tells me to ban fireworks and I don't do it, I may be out of a job,' " said Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, who is the primary legislative sponsor of the law. "It takes some of the politics out of an elected official putting pressure, or not putting pressure, on the fire official."

Dunnigan said H.B. 289 was intended to create a more consistent process for cities and towns. The old law, he said, left unclear who was really the "authority" to ban fireworks, and cities were interpreting that in different ways.

Under the new law, the local legislative body — in most cases a city council — would have a say in the restrictions. A fire marshal and/or fire chief would still determine what hazardous environmental conditions exist and make recommendations for restrictions based on those conditions, but the council would then create a separate ordinance and vote on it.

"[Fire officials] said, 'Let the professionals do their job, let them determine if there's environmental conditions, and then put it back to the policymakers to make the call, " Dunnigan said.


Fire officials said, you know what, if my mayor tells me to ban fireworks and I don't do it, I may be out of a job.

–Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville,


Dunnigan said in many smaller cities and some larger ones, the fire marshal is appointed by the mayor and works at the mayor's purview. He suggested the change would add more voices to the process and would potentially reduce the influence of the one elected official.

Fire officials from multiple jurisdictions said Wednesday they initially had reservations about the legislation, but believe the new system will work well.

Ogden's city council on Tuesday voted to alter its city code to bring it into compliance with the new state statute. The Ogden ordinance goes into effect July 1.

"It's not a big change, because really we were doing most of this already," Ogden Fire Marshal Brandon Thueson said. "The piece that is new to us is that the restriction will then go before the city council kind of as a review. Really, what we've established is a check-and-balance process."

Thueson said though the new law appeared to add an extra layer to the process of enacting fire restrictions, Ogden City was well positioned to respond to emergencies.

"Our system is built to where we can have some flexibility to react to environmental conditions as they change and occur, and then we present it to the city council for a review after the restriction is in place just so that they know what's going on and that they can watch and see that we're basing our restrictions on scientific data and not just emotion," Thueson said.

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Unified Fire Authority Capt. Clint Meacham said it remained uncertain whether or not the law would slow a city's policy response to emergency fire conditions in some areas, though he said he didn't believe it would have an impact in the areas that UFA serves.

"A city council can meet quickly, they can meet within 24 hours' notice — or, if it's an emergency, even less; it doesn't need to be a big deal," Dunnigan said. "But if somebody is going to restrict something that is allowed by law, I think it's reasonable that it's the policymakers for the city that will make that call or that decision."

The law also appears to discourage a broad-brush approach to restrictions by giving cities the latitude to pinpoint where specific restrictions apply — even to parks or open fields.

"Before, it potentially could have been that whatever restrictions that the fire marshal recommended and enacted for Crestwood Park [in Cottonwood Heights] would carry over to other parks that maybe don't have that problem," Meacham said. "[The new law] allows for us to pick and choose individual areas without having to blanket the entire area we serve."

Salt Lake City Fire Marshal Martha Ellis said she believed Utah's state capital was already operating well within the boundaries of the new law.

"We are extremely meticulous with how we select the restrictions," Ellis said.

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