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Leominster Fire Department
Fire Prevention
The Leominster Fire Prevention Bureau performs inspections, issues various permits, performs fire investigations and oversees fire education. There are three officers working in the Fire Prevention Bureau. They are DC Ashton, Lt. Quintin Tigs and LT. Chris Cameron. For your convenience you may pull up any permit application. You still need to bring your form along with payment: made out to; “The City of Leominster”; to the Fire Prevention Office, located across from the Police and Fire Headquarters, on Church St. In the old, “Gallagher”, building.
 		 Office hours:
Monday through Fridays from 7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
The office is closed on weekends and on holidays, however in an emergency the bureau members can be reached through the Deputy Chief on duty.
The inspector will issue a certificate of compliance after the inspection and payment of the fee. The certificate is valid for 60 days from the date of inspection. You are urged not to wait until the last minute before closing on a property to receive an inspection. As the end of each month approaches, the inspection times rapidly fill up each day and an appointment may not be available.
  
  Click Here for Permits
 		 Inspection and Permit Fees

Please Click Here for a listing of all fees...
Safety Tips for People with Disabilities:

If you have a disability, consider how it could affect your ability to escape from a fire in your home. If your disability requires special arrangements, make them part of the escape plan.
This way out: It’s important that people with limited mobility stay as close to safety as possible. Consider sleeping on the ground floor, making escape easier. Have a telephone installed where you sleep.
Sound the Alarm: Smoke alarms listed by a qualified testing laboratory save lives by sounding a warning and allowing people to escape. But what if you or alarm that alerts with flashing lights. Some smoke alarms have a louder alarm.
Stay Connected: The majority of fatal home fires happen at night, and escape might be necessary through an area with smoke or in the dark. If you are unable to leave on your own, call the fire department and tell them your exact location. If you have a cordless phone, try to take it with you if you have to escape from fire.

The Leominster Fire and Police Departments maintain a confidential computer database, which would alert us to a person needing special services in the event of an emergency at a specific address. Please call the fire department at: (978) 534-7541, or the Police department at: (978) 534-7560, to inquire about adding you special circumstance to our database.
 
Smoke Detector Information
 
 
All buildings or structures occupied in whole or in part for residential purposes upon the sale or transfer, shall be equipped by the seller with approved smoke detectors/MGL Chap.148 sec.26F

The Leominster Fire Department wants to assist all homeowners in making the inspection for compliance a simple step in the transfer or sale of property. The following information describes the proper placement of smoke detector, proper marking/numbering of a property, how to call for an inspection, and the fee for issuing a certificate of compliance.

Smoke Detector Placement

The State law requires an operating smoke detector on every habitable level, including the basement. Finished attic spaces also need smoke detector coverage. In homes with floor space exceeding 1,200 square feet per floor, a second detector will be required.

First Floor – Smoke detectors should be placed on the ceiling in the hallway near a stairwell to the second floor, unless there is a bedroom on the first floor. In this case, a smoke detector should also be placed outside the bedroom door. Placing the detector more than 6 feet from a kitchen or bathroom door will help to avoid alarms set – off by cooking or steam.

Second Floor - The smoke detector must be placed on the ceiling in the hallway common to ALL bedrooms, normally at the head of stairs. The idea is for the smoke to get to the detector before it reaches the bedrooms. Again avoid placement within 6 feet of a bathroom door.

Basement – Smoke detectors should be placed on the cellar ceiling at the base of the cellar stairs. If the ceiling is unfinished, place the detector on the edge of the joist (not in the bay between two ceiling/floor joists). Never place the detector at the top of the basement stairs by the cellar door.

General Information – Smoke detectors should be placed on the ceiling a minimum of twelve (12) inches from the nearest wall. Placement of smoke detectors on a wall may result in a delayed alarm.

Testing Before Inspection – You may already have smoke detectors in your home. If the detector is installed according to regulations, push the test button on EACH detector to make sure it works. A fresh battery should be placed in each detector and marked with a date. Hardwired A/C detectors in newer properties should already be installed properly and only need to be tested for proper operation. Testing of one A/C powered smoke detector should activate ALL the other detectors in hardwired A/C powered smoke detector installations.

Other Useful Information About Smoke Detectors

Why home smoke detectors should be replaced after 10 years

Smoke detectors are one of the most important safety features of your home. Properly installed, working smoke detectors will give you the early warning you need to safely escape from a fire. But how do you make sure your detectors are working? One important way is to replace thereafter 10 years.

As electronic devices, detectors are subject to random failures. Product, installation, and maintenance standards are used to assure products work as designed despite this. Part of the technical basis for the first detector product standard was an assessment of expected failure rate, estimated at four per million hours of operation or one every 30 years. Early field studies of detector reliability, notably by Canada’s Ontario Housing Corporation, confirmed the essential accuracy of this estimate, restated as a 3% failure rate per year. This means a very small fraction of home smoke detectors will fail almost immediately, and 3 % will fail by the end of the first year. After 30 years, nearly all the detectors will have failed, most years earlier.

How soon should you replace your detector?

This is a value judgment. Only 3% of detectors are likely to fail in the first year, and annual replacement would be very expensive, so that doesn’t make sense. At 15 years, the chances are better than 50/50 that your detector has failed, and that seems too big a risk to take. Manufacturers’ warranties for the early detectors typically ran out in 3-5 years. So, in ten years there is roughly a 30% probability of failure before replacement. This seemed to balance safety and cost in a way that made sense to the responsible technical committees.

If a 30% failure probability still seems too high, remember that replacement on a schedule is only a backup for replacement based on testing. A national study found that when home smoke detectors fail, tend to fail completely. Regular monthly testing will help discover detector failure as well as dead or missing batteries.

The same study showed all the inoperable detectors tested in 1992 were at least 5 years old and predated a 1987 change in product standards that reduced sensitivity to reduce nuisance alarms. Changes in detector chip design, among other improvement, make it likely that electronic failure now occurs at a rate much less than 4 times per million hours of operation.

Replacing detectors after 10 years protects against the accumulated chance of failure, but monthly testing is still your best means of making sure detectors work. Today’s detectors are even less vulnerable than the older models to failure.

Required House Numbers

Every building in the commonwealth shall have affixed a number representing the address of such building. Said number shall be of a nature and size situated on the building so that it is visible from the nearest street or road providing vehicular access to such building. MGL Chap 148 Sec.59

All homes must be properly marked as part of the smoke detector certificate of compliance. It is suggested that all homes use numbers larger than four (4) inches in height, of a contrasting color to the dwelling, and located so as to be readily visible from the road. Despite the pleasant appearance of brass numbers, they are very difficult to see on light colored homes and are not recommended.
 
New Notice of and Carbon Monoxide/CO Detector Requirements

In November 2005 the Massachusetts Legislature passed “Nicole’s Law,” which requires smoke detectors and carbon-monoxide detectors in all residential properties, following a tragic accident in Plymouth.

All residential properties must have working smoke detectors on all levels. 1 and 2 family homes built prior to 1975 may utilize battery-operated smoke detectors; the State Building Code requires hard-wired, interconnected smoke detectors on all newer properties. 3 to 5 family apartment houses may have battery-operated smoke detectors outside the sleeping areas, but require hard-wired interconnected smoke detectors in all common areas. Apartment buildings with greater than 6 or more dwelling units require a full fire alarm system with a control panel.

All residential properties that have fossil-fuel burning equipment or an attached garage must have working carbon monoxide protection. A detector is required within ten feet of each bedroom door, and one on each habitable level. Generally, unfinished basements and attics do not require carbon monoxide detectors. Battery operated, wall plug-in (with battery back-up), hardwired (with battery back-up) or wireless detectors are allowed by the Fire Safety Code. If you choose to install combination smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, the Code requires that they signal with a voice-type alarm and that any unit installed within 20 feet of a kitchen or bathroom utilize photo-electric type smoke detection. Carbon monoxide detectors do not go inside garages, but must be installed within the adjacent living space.

The law requires that landlords install, maintain and test these detectors within their tenants’ units; the law also provides penalties for any person who tampers with these life safety devices.

Smoke detectors have greatly reduced the occurrence of fire deaths and injuries over the past twenty-five years; Nicole’s law was passed to protect us all from the dangers of carbon-monoxide poisoning. Please install these required life safety devices in your property without delay.
 
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A portion of the information was obtained from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Lexington, Ma Fire department.