Newsday

The city's first major revision to its fire code in more than 80 years requires big restaurants and department stores to have fire plans for the first time and sets rules for how to store hazardous chemicals.

The 471-page draft, posted Wednesday on the fire department's Web site for public comment, was to be paired with an overhaul of the city's building code enacted earlier this year.

While the building code changes drew from lessons about evacuations and fire safety learned after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, fire officials responded to events such as a 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire and a 2002 Manhattan building explosion.

Federal investigators of the 2002 blast, which injured dozens of people at the Kaltech Industries signmaking plant, recommended an overhaul of the code. The blast had erupted in the basement, where the company was mixing chemicals including nitric acid and lacquer thinner.

The proposed changes to the code require businesses to let the fire department know where and how they are storing a long list of flammable chemicals including gasoline, diesel fuel and chemicals used at nail salons and dry cleaners.

The new code is needed to control hazardous chemicals, said William E. Wright, interim executive of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Adopting the code "will make New York a safer place to work and live," he said.

The code also would require businesses such as movie theaters, restaurants and department stores that routinely serve more than 500 people to submit fire plans, along with high-rises and office buildings.

Other changes would require buildings to ensure firefighters have access to their rooftops and make sure roads leading to residential developments in certain parts of the city are wide enough.

Fire department Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said Wednesday that the code "is designed to enhance the safety of all New Yorkers, as well as our members and other emergency responders."

A public hearing is scheduled for later this month; the code needs City Council approval to pass. The fire department said it hoped the new code would take effect next July along with the new building rules.

On the Net:

Proposed fire code: http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/firecode/index.shtml