By Karen Frantz
The city buildings with the highest risk of fire are first in line for inspections with help from a new technology the city Fire Department is putting to use as the first of its kind in the nation.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the Risk Based Inspection System application at a news conference Wednesday at a firehouse, at 33-51 Greenpoint Ave. in Long Island City.
He said until the system was installed, firefighters had limited information about how to prioritize buildings for inspections.
“Our new system changes that,” he said. “That means we’ll stop more fires before they can start.”
The inspection system ranks a building’s risk of fire by collecting various criteria about it, such as its age, construction material and whether it has a sprinkler system and its last date of inspection. The system also tracks buildings’ histories of safety violations.
The buildings are scored and prioritized and automatically scheduled for inspection, and structures with violations are scheduled for follow-ups.
Bloomberg said the city is a leader in the country in using such data intelligently.
“We have the information. Why not give it to [firefighters] so that they can be safer and have them do inspections where it really matters more?” he said.
Individual buildings will also have their own electronic folder, and information about the buildings from other city agencies, such as the Departments of City Planning, Buildings, Environmental Protection and Finance, will also be accessible.
“What we’ve done here is activate more of the city’s brain,” said the city’s chief policy adviser, John Feinblatt. “Mining data like this breaks down agency barriers, knits the city’s knowledge together and helps us prevent injuries and save lives.”
Bloomberg said the technology will help the Fire Department drive down the number of fire-related deaths in the city, which are already at an all-time low.
There were 58 deaths from fire in the city last year, the lowest toll recorded since record-keeping began in 1916, Bloomberg said. In addition, the city has had fewer than 100 fire deaths a year only 12 times since 1916, and nine of those years were in the last decade.
The number of buildings that have caught on fire has also decreased 16 percent citywide in the last 11 years.
Previously, inspections were determined essentially on a cyclical basis, although risk assessment was still factored in.
City firefighters inspect about 50,000 buildings for fire safety violations each year.
Reach reporter Karen Frantz by e-mail at kfrantz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
