Fire Marshall Home Inspection

[AZ38super]

All this talk on tyhis made me want to look, this is what I was able to find in Mesa Arizona's fire code. Not much help for your case anyway.

3306.5.1.3 Small Arms Primers. No more than ten thousand

(10,000) small arms primers shall be displayed in Group M

occupancies. Black powder shall not be stored with small

arms primers or percussion caps. (4263)

No reference to smokeless powder but a couple sections on explosives where there is a chart for seperation distances from inhabited buildings, public right ways and such but it states no limit for under 50 pounds.

CHAPTER 4

FIRE INVESTIGATORS

SECTION:

7-4-1: Duties; Powers; Limitations:

7-4-1: DUTIES; POWERS; LIMITATIONS:

(A) The City Manager may designate certain members

of the Mesa Fire Department as fire investigators. A

fire investigator is authorized to investigate, detect,

and, where appropriate, cite persons who have

violated or are suspected of violating any provision

of Title 13, Chapter 17 of the Arizona Revised Statutes

or any provision of the Uniform Fire Code as adopted

and amended by the City. (2589,3042)

( B ) While engaged in fire investigations and related fire

code enforcement duties in this State, members of

the Fire Department designated and appointed as

fire investigators pursuant to the provisions of

Subsection (A) possess and may exercise law

enforcement powers of peace officers of this State.

(2589,3042)

( C ) This Section does not grant any powers of peace

officers of this State to fire investigators other than

those necessary for the investigation, detection, and

citation authority under Subsection (A). (2589,3042)

(D) Any individual designated as a fire investigator

shall have law enforcement training under the

provisions of Arizona Revised Statutes

Section 41-1822. (2589,3042)

Edited April 25, 2006 by AZ38super

[geezer-lock]

The National Code states:

11-5.4 No more than 10,000 small arms primers may be stored in residences.

10-3.7 Smokeless propellants intended for personal use in quantities not exceeding 20 lb (9.1 kg) may be stored in original containers in residences. Quantities exceeding 20 lb (9.1 kg) but not exceeding 50 lb (22.7 kg), may be stored in residences if kept in a wooden box or cabinet having walls of at least 1-inch (25.4 mm) nominal thickness.

Your city or state may use different numbers.

David C

Edited April 25, 2006 by geezer-lock

[Bruce]

The question you need to ask yourself is this: If our buddy showed up at the fire marshall's house, and told him he would like to search his house...would he let him in or tell him to go pound sand? 100% of the time it would be the latter. So, why extend the courtesy to someone just because they work a different job than you?

It has been my experience that if there is probable cause to search a man's home, LE will have a warrant when they arrive so as to not waste the time to go, get turned down, then go to find a judge, state their facts, wait, get it, drive back, etc., etc. Depending on the crime being alleged, they also don't want to give a person the tip that they want to search. So, they bring the warrant.

If asked, I would politely decline the officer's request to come and check out our housekeeping.

James Jeffries wrote a wonderul piece on what an FFL should do if the ATF comes knocking. http://www.titleii.com/BardwellOLD/jim4.txt It has a lot of good advice in it, and it is free Jim is a good guy.

[bountyhunter]

One of the guys at our club was awakened early one morning by a knock on his front door. He opened the door to find the local Fire Marshall standing there, and telling him that he needed to 'inspect his home'. Since he was half awake, and staring at a guy with a badge in a uniform, he said 'come on in...'

About the time they hit the basement stairs he thought 'oh oh. I've got a bunch of powder, primers, etc. down here' but it was too late to do anything about it. Sure enough the Fire Marshall nailed him for having too much powder, told him that he had to get the excess out of the house, and that he would be back to inspect again to make sure he cleared up the problem.

Has anything like this happened to anyone else out here? Also, do you have to let them in, or can you just tell them 'I am not interested in an inspection, thank you' and close the door?

You have to let them in..... IF AND ONLY IF they have a search warrant! An inspection by a city official is like a talk with your girlfriend..... you know it's going to be painful and nothing good will come of it!

We had a kitchen remodel done and each time we had to get a signoff the bozo inspector would wander through the house (scuffing up our floors with his work boots) just to make sure he found something to write us up for each time.

The last one absolutely made me want to kill him: he wrote us up because the stairs in the back of the house going to the top room didn't have a banister..... which was not even required when that addition was put on 40 years ago!

[Genghis]

The National Code states:Quantities exceeding 20 lb (9.1 kg) but not exceeding 50 lb (22.7 kg), may be stored in residences if kept in a wooden box

Always wondered about this. Do the people who wrote the Code WANT your house to burn down if you store gunpowder there?

[Alan Meek]

I think the theory there is the 1" thick wood will act as a firewall much like they put between apartments and townhomes to restrict the spread of the fire. So the 1" thick wall on a cabinet would do the same thing.

When we had our shop we had to have a powder magazine on wheels with 1" thick wood sides, bottom and top

Alan

[Sixgun]

The National Code states:Quantities exceeding 20 lb (9.1 kg) but not exceeding 50 lb (22.7 kg), may be stored in residences if kept in a wooden box

My question is: Total quantity, or quantity per container?

Ray

[Rob Boudrie]

I am familiar with the concept of a "neighbor call" because of being known to have guns in the house.

A friend parked in front of my house to help me move some furniture, but got to the house before I did. A neighbor called the police about a suspicoius character in front of the "gun house."

The report of the converstation was something like this:

Cop to suspicous character: Hey Erich, we got a call of a suspicious character in front of Rob's house. Have you seen any?

Suspicious character: Nope, I haven't.

Cop to neighbor: Thanks for calling, but it's not a problem. It's just one of the gun people, but we're always glad to check these things out.

Neighbor: Do you know he has all sorts of guns?

Cop: Yes

Neighbor: Doesn't that bother you?

Cop: No.

I think the neighbor was disappointed.

[Flexmoney]

was it this guy?

[XRe]

was it this guy?

Let me tell you somethin!!!!!