Letter: Fire-suppression must be priority

After reading your article about the lack of firefighter protection in that Texas town, I found it appalling as to why there weren’t any fire-suppression systems in a place where volatile materials were stored or manufactured. And if there were, why wasn’t it activated?

New Jersey requires every commercial and industrial establishment to have these systems, and they inspect them on a regular basis. When a fire inspector or fire marshal inspects and finds a violation, a fine is issued. And in what is called a “fire egress corridor,” if they find anything that’s not supposed to be there, a fine is issued.

This is what’s supposed to be done to prevent loss of life. If the establishment hasn’t remedied that violation, a possible mandatory closing can be applied, depending on the type of violation.

All states, cities, towns and villages, should adopt and enforce these fire-suppression laws that will prevent loss of life and property.

However, unless the inspections are made and follow-ups to violations are done, these types of tragedies will continue to happen. We regulate nonsense but fail to protect the best of the best.

I’d be willing to bet that almost every business has at least two fire violations that are detrimental to safety, such as blocked fire egress corridors, and items stocked too high in back rooms that will prevent sprinkler heads from providing proper suppression to a potential fire.

Help save the lives of those whose job it is to save ours.

This story was originally published December 29, 2016 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Letter: Fire-suppression must be priority."