Building Fire Safety Committee

Section 71 of the Development Act 1993 establishes the power for the Council to establish a Building Fire Safety Committee. District Council of Mount Remarkable’s Building Fire Safety Committee consists Membership of the Committee will consist of:

• A person who holds prescribed qualifications in building surveying;
• A person nominated by the Chief Officer of the South Australian Country Fire Service
• Council’s Development Officer, being a person with expertise in the area of fire safety; and
• A person selected by the Council

Building Fire Safety Committee Terms of Reference 2021

The committee meets regularly to undertake inspections of the building within the District Council of Mount Remarkable. In general, the committee focuses on the following building types:-

• Hotels/ motels and other accommodation buildings
• Supportive residential and aged care facilities
• Buildings where large numbers of people may congregate
• Warehouses, factories, shops, offices and other commercial buildings.

Responsibilities

The Building Fire Safety Committee is assigned the responsibilities to:-

• Develop appropriate building fire safety inspection policies
• Scrutinize the fire safety of the buildings that have been identified as having inadequate fire safety provisions
• Issue  “Notices of Fire Safety Defect” to building owners, which identify fire safety provisions that need to be upgraded to an extent that provides a reasonable level of safety for the occupants
• Forward information on Section 71 fire safety notices to council administration for Section 7 enquiries (made by the vendor when building is available for sale or lease)
• Where appropriate, negotiating a cost effective performance solution with a building owner to reduce fire safety risks to an acceptable level
• Issue “Notice of Building Work Required’, which schedule prescribed building work that must be carried out in order to raise the building fire safety to a reasonable level of safety
• Initiate enforcement or other action to ensure a building owner complies with a “Notice of Building Work Required”, and
• Revoke or vary fire safety notices when appropriate.

Given the commercial confidentiality of the proceedings at these meetings, agendas and minutes are not published on our website.

For more information contact the District Council of Mount Remarkable on 8666 2014 or email postmaster@mtr.sa.gov.au.