EASTON, Pa. – The City of Easton is putting fire inspections in the spotlight.
A new initiative that focuses on inspections and safety for businesses and commercial properties, is on its way to city council.
Councilman Frank Pintabone says he honed in on creating the initiative, after he took a stroll through the town, looking at the city’s functions.
“Looking at different functions of the city; one of our functions is making sure our businesses and our commercial units provide fire inspections,” said Pintabone. “Every year our commercial properties [and] our apartment buildings, have to have fire safety inspections done. They hire a company. The fire suppression systems, the sprinklers, the sprinkler systems, the fire extinguishers, the standpipes, smoke detectors, everything.”
Pintabone says he met with municipalities that use a third-party company to make sure properties are complying with their inspections.
With their advice, months later, the City of Easton entered into its own agreement with the company, National Fire Inspection Specialties, at no cost.
Along with strengthening public safety standards throughout the city, Pintabone says the goal is also to streamline compliance and reduce workload on the city’s code department.
“According to our code, it’s $1,000 a day fine for every day you don’t have your inspection and past your due date,” said Pintabone. “They’re going to make sure they’re doing their inspection; they’re having their inspections done. They’re going to gather all the information. They’re going to give it to us.”
Mayor Sal Panto calls it a proactive measure.
“Fire inspections are very important because they keep our city safe coming just off of the Hotel Hampton fire, which displaced 67 people,” Panto. “Fire safety is the most important safety.”
Within the next few meetings, officials say a final version of the ordinance will be presented to city council for an official vote.