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Committee approves amendment to ease sprinkler requirement for seasonal youth camp cabins
Summary
After hearings with camp operators, the state fire marshal and building-code officials, the committee adopted an amendment and voted to advance Senate Bill 95 to allow a limited waiver of automatic sprinkler requirements for certain seasonal youth camp cabins while preserving other fire-safety measures
The Executive Departments and Administration Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 95 with an amendment that preauthorizes building-code and fire-code amendments to treat certain youth camp cabins as seasonal residential structures exempt from automatic sprinkler requirements.
Senator Mark McConkie introduced the bill as an attempt to address confusion about how state building and fire codes apply to seasonal children’s summer-camp cabins. He said the statute is intended to reflect longstanding practice and to reduce costly and inconsistent enforcement actions when local interpretations change.
Camp operators and the American Camp Association’s government-affairs representatives told the committee cabins at summer camps have life-safety profiles different from dormitories or rooming houses and that many cabins are seasonal and primitive (sometimes without plumbing or electricity). Scott Brody, a camp director who testified, described standard operating practices including regular fire drills, staff-to-child supervision ratios, and means of egress tailored to camp buildings. He said large structural sprinkler systems are impractical and costly for many seasonal cabins and can be difficult to maintain in structures that are drained for winter.
State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey said his office worked closely with camps and local fire chiefs to craft language modeled on existing chapters of the fire code to preserve safety provisions — e.g., smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, required exits — while exempting some seasonal cabins from automatic sprinkler mandates. Phil Sherman, chair of the Building Code Review Board, recommended instructing the Board of Fire Control and the Building Code Review Board to insert the implementing language into the applicable code chapters so design professionals and enforcement officials can find it easily.
The committee approved an amendment (filed as 1740-H) that “preauthorizes any building code or fire code amendments that may be necessary” to implement the bill and places that language into a code location for clarity. On a roll call the committee voted to pass SB 95 with the amendment and placed it on consent for further legislative action.
Committee members asked about typical cabin sizes, two-story restrictions in the bill (the compromise limits residential cabins to two stories to ensure practical evacuation), smoke-detector and fire-extinguisher requirements, and whether camps generally prohibit smoking; witnesses said smoke detectors and annual inspections are required, camps typically prohibit smoking, and larger shared-use buildings (dining halls, multipurpose buildings) would still be held to conventional code requirements including sprinklers where appropriate.
