S-4286.1  _______________________________________________

           SUBSTITUTE SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 8404

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      54th Legislature     1996 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Government Operations (originally sponsored by Senators Kohl, Gaspard, Pelz, Winsley, Franklin, Snyder, Sutherland, Haugen, Sheldon, Prentice, Deccio, C. Anderson and Bauer)

Read first time 01/11/96.

Establishing a joint select committee on fire suppression.

    WHEREAS, The residents of Washington should be safe from life and property loss due to fire; and

    WHEREAS, Automatic fire extinguishing systems, including sprinklers, have been proven to save lives and prevent property loss; and

    WHEREAS, Many of Washington's existing residential and commercial building structures do not have adequate fire prevention and suppression devices including automatic fire extinguishing systems; and

    WHEREAS, Residents of the state have suffered significant life and property loss in fires occurring in buildings not equipped with such systems; and

    WHEREAS, The Legislature recognizes that there are substantial financial and administrative burdens associated with the installation of these systems that cannot be borne solely by building owners themselves; and

    WHEREAS, There has been little progress by local jurisdictions to address this issue;

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, By the Senate of the State of Washington, the House of Representatives concurring, That a Joint Select Committee on Fire Suppression be established to:

    (1) Investigate the problems of insufficient fire prevention, inadequate fire suppression, and building structures without sprinklers in Washington state;

    (2) Review the actions of other jurisdictions nation-wide to address the issues of fire prevention, fire suppression, and retrofitting for fire sprinklers; and

    (3) Make recommendations to the legislature and to the governor regarding ways that the legislature, local jurisdictions, fire protection services, and the private sector can work cooperatively to reduce the financial and administrative burdens to retrofitting existing building structures with automatic fire extinguishing systems; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That:

    (1) The committee consist of four voting members, one from each major caucus of the Senate and the House of Representatives to be appointed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively;

    (2) The State Fire Marshal shall be an ex officio nonvoting member of the joint committee;

    (3) The members of the joint committee shall select from among their voting members a chair and other officers as the committee deems appropriate;

    (4) The joint committee may appoint as needed to carry out its duties the following:

    (a) Subcommittees; and

    (b) Advisory groups of nonmembers;

    (5) The Senate Committee Services and the House of Representatives Office of Program Research shall provide staffing to the committee; and

    (6) All expenses and hiring of additional staff shall be subject to the approval of the Senate Facilities and Operations Committee and the House of Representatives Executive Rules Committee; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the committee shall report its findings and recommendations to the legislature by January 1, 1997.

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