Smoke detectors not required in all buildings

There were four structure fires in Bend last week alone. One of them was at an office building on Shevlin-Hixon Drive after a transient lit it purposefully on fire. The reported damage was $265,000.

There were no smoke detectors in the building and that’s not against the law or a building or a fire code violation

“Some buildings require smoke detectors some don’t,” said Bend Deputy Fire Marshal Cindy Kettering said Tuesday.

Under Oregon code, all residential buildings require smoke alarms in each sleeping room and on each additional story of the house.

“The majority of fires in residential dwellings occur at night, and so you can’t rely on your nose to wake you up in the event of a fire,” Kettering said.

While smoke alarms are always required for residential structures, it gets more complicated for commercial buildings.

“The difference is: How large is the building? What is the use of the building? How many people are in the building? All those factors play into whether or not smoke detection is required or not,” Kettering said.

A business is only required to have a smoke detection system if they have more than 500 employees in the building, or if it’s a high-rise. Even then, they would just have to have a manual alarm system, meaning someone would have to physically trigger the alarm. That is not of any help at night, when most office buildings sit empty.

“At this point, it’s just not required for everyone. But would it be beneficial? Yes, it would definitely be beneficial,” Kettering said.

In any building where people might not be able to manually use a fire alarm, like hospitals or foster care facilities, automatic smoke detectors are required. The beeping sound is not meant to protect a structure, but save lives.

“In the 1970s, when more materials were made out of cotton and other fibers, more natural fibers, the average family had 17 minutes to get out of a burning home. Today the average family has three,” Kettering said.