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Food‑truck operators petition Building Code Council over gas‑system inspection requirement; fire officials say providers exist
Summary
A petition from the Washington State Food Truck Association asks the State Building Code Council to alter enforcement or timing for fire‑code Section 319.10.3 (gas‑system maintenance for food trucks); Seattle Fire Department and a state fire‑marshals poll reported adequate service providers and did not support postponement.
The Washington State Food Truck Association has filed a petition for rulemaking with the State Building Code Council asking for relief or a change in enforcement practice for fire‑code Section 319.10.3, which governs maintenance and inspection of gas systems on food trucks, SBCC Managing Director Dustin Curb told the Executive Committee on May 15.
"We received... somewhere in the range of, 50 to 60 individual messages from different food truck owners to address a code section in the fire code," Curb said, describing why the petition was filed and explaining the statutory timeline the council must follow. Under the statute, the council must accept, deny or initiate emergency rulemaking — or provide an alternative response — within 60 days of receiving a petition. Curb said the petition will be introduced at the BFRW committee and scheduled for Council action later in June so the statutory response deadline is met.
Representatives of local fire authorities told the committee they have not found statewide capacity problems. Ken Brouillette of the Seattle Fire Department said the Seattle Fire Marshal's Office surveyed local providers and that a poll of the Washington State Association of Fire Marshals indicated no statewide shortage of inspectors or service providers able to perform the required work. "They have polled their membership...and they have...made a determination that there's not an issue with the people being able to provide this service," Brouillette said.
A Seattle fire official who joined the call (recorded in the transcript as Shata Stephenson) clarified that, when early vendor availability concerns surfaced, inspectors issued notices of violation as a temporary measure while additional local options were identified. "We didn't want it to be 100% unreasonable and burdensome for the vendors...it didn't take us long to discover that there were RB dealerships that were more than willing to do this service in... close to Seattle," she said.
Committee members urged practical ways to address vendor‑access concerns. Roger Heeringa suggested compiling and publishing a list of qualified service providers so food‑truck operators can find inspection/maintenance vendors; Ken Brouillette said he would ask the state association if it could help assemble such a list but could not promise statewide coverage.
No final action was taken by the Executive Committee; Dustin Curb said the petition will proceed to the June BFRW meeting for deliberation and that a Council action to accept/deny/initiate emergency rulemaking is anticipated during the statutory window (Curb referenced June 26 as a Council meeting where action could occur). The committee discussed technical and statutory limits on emergency and permanent rulemaking pathways and noted that emergency rules would need a parallel permanent rulemaking to carry forward.
What’s next: the petition will be formally introduced to BFRW and placed on the Council agenda; SBCC staff and fire‑marshal offices will explore whether a provider list can be compiled and posted. The Executive Committee did not vote on the petition at this meeting.
