Fire Marshal
Press Release:
Travis County Fire Code Civil Penalty
December 8, 2009
RE: Travis County Fire Code Civil Penalty
History: Travis County Commissioners Court adopted International Fire Code 2003 as the Fire Code for unincorporated Travis County effective February 1, 2005. The penalty phase of the fire code was delayed and became effective May 1, 2005.
Sections 109.3 and Section 111.4 of International Fire Code 2003 address the penalties for violations of the Fire Code and Failure to Comply with notices of violations related to the Fire Code. Violators are subject to civil penalties of up to $200.00 for each day that a violation exists.
Through experience accumulated by both the Fire Marshal’s Office and the County Attorney’s Office in collaborative enforcement over the last two years, categories of civil violations and patterns of non-compliance and responses to that non-compliance have evolved into a set of informal guidelines between the Fire Marshal’s Office and the County Attorney’s Office. These guidelines seek to deter violations of the Fire Code through clarity of expectations with the regulated community and consistency in the application of fines and other civil enforcement against scofflaws within that community.
The guidelines, once approved by Travis County Commissioners Court, will be available to the regulated community in hard copy and through the Fire Marshal’s website. In response to violations, the Fire Marshal’s Office and the County Attorney’s Office will utilize the guidelines in pursuit of compliance and penalties for violations.
However, the guidelines do not, in any way, intrude upon the prosecutorial discretion of the County Attorney’s Office should that office deem other responses more appropriate to the circumstance presented.
The penalty matrix of the guidelines will better match a Fire Code Civil Penalty with a violation by quantifying various aspects and circumstances of non-compliance. This approach will offer flexibility to the Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office, Travis County Attorney’s Office and the Commissioners Court to address both common types of violations as well as more serious types of violations in a transparent and consistent manner.
Last Modified: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 3:42 PM