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Columbia County fire marshal details plan-review and inspection role in Lakeside, Evans school expansions
Summary
Chief Fire Marshal Brian Clark described how Columbia County’s fire marshal office, housed in Development Services, reviews life-safety plans, conducts staged inspections and signs off on certificates of occupancy for projects including Lakeside High School’s performing arts center and gymnasium additions and ongoing work at Evans High School.
Chief Fire Marshal Brian Clark said Columbia County’s fire marshal office — which is part of Development Services rather than the county fire department — reviews life-safety plans, witnesses system tests and participates in staged inspections before new commercial spaces, including school additions, are cleared for occupancy.
“Once everything is complete that the designers have called out, then that's whenever we would be part of the certificate of occupancy being issued,” Clark said. The county’s life-safety review runs alongside building plan review so that architects’ and engineers’ plans meet fire-safety requirements from the conceptual stage through final inspection.
The distinction matters because life-safety code requirements determine occupancy classification and set prescriptive thresholds — for example,…
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