Committee on Fire and Emergency Management

This bill would preserve existing sanitation-based civil penalties and other punishment for fire hydrant obstruction violations involving the throwing or piling of snow or ice. This bill would also make clear that higher civil penalties, criminal fines, and other punishment are applicable for other fire hydrant obstruction violations and for violations of newsstand distance requirements from fire hydrants.

This bill would remove the exception in §309.3 of the New York City Fire Code that allows the storage and charging of mobility devices in a dwelling unit in a Group R-2 occupancy building.

This bill would require the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to declare any day on which the federal Air Quality Index is expected to or does exceed 150 as a “Spare the Air Day,” and to post on its website and publicly disseminate information concerning the air quality emergency. The bill would also require DEP to work with other agencies to implement emergency response protocols on Spare the Air Days, including by ensuring that all clean air centers are open to the public, distributing face masks, opening High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, and creating short-term access to shelters for homeless individuals. The bill would also prohibit outdoor charcoal grilling on Spare the Air Days, as well as other activities that impair outdoor air quality, as determined by DEP in collaboration with the New York City Office of Emergency Management and any other relevant agency.

This bill amends provisions related to the periodic inspection, testing, and maintenance requirements for fire and smoke dampers and smoke control systems. Specifically, the legislation incorporates NFPA standards for the schedule of periodic testing of fire and smoke dampers and smoke control systems, creates procedures for conducting mandated inspections, and establishes qualification requirements for individuals performing inspections, tests, and maintenance of such systems.

This bill would require the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) to witness automatic sprinkler system and standpipe system tests every three years.

This legislation would waive requirements for remote monitoring and reporting of energy storage management systems for certain small residential energy storage systems and create an expedited permitting process for medium energy storage systems.

This bill would require the Office of Emergency Management, in consultation with the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy and the Department of Education (DOE) to develop a plan to provide students with breakfast, lunch and dinner in the event that City schools are ordered closed either by the governor, mayor or chancellor, or when any form of remote learning is being used by the DOE. The DOE already provides free breakfast, lunch and afterschool meals to all NYC public school students during the school year. This bill would ensure that in the event of an emergency or public health crisis that shutters schools, students will still be able to receive the meals they would normally receive in school and thus ensure their food security.

This bill would remove the requirement in the New York City Fire Code that battery charging areas for powered mobility devices be separated by fire barriers from repair or servicing stations. The bill would not change any other current requirement that applies to charging areas for powered mobility devices.

This bill would require the creation of emergency response maps for all city properties, unless exempted by the Commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management. The bill would restrict the organizations allowed to carry out the required mapping to those that meet a set of prescribed qualifications, and would establish technical standards for the maps.

This bill would require the Fire Commissioner to equip each firefighting vehicle with a handheld computer device that can capture identifying information of a driver or motor vehicle in order to generate a summons concerning Fire Department-enforced parking violations. The Fire Commissioner would be required to consult with the Police Commissioner to select devices that are able to quickly and accurately obtain this information and generate these summonses in compliance with applicable laws and rules.