Older buildings in Glen Ellyn may lead to stricter fire code

The Glen Ellyn village board discussed Monday the possibility of placing stricter fire alarm system requirements on some buildings in its downtown area.

The board and other village officials talked about a potential amendment to the fire code that would require certain buildings in the downtown area to have an automatic fire alarm system.

"We were asked to look at the possibility if the village should consider doing that," Planning and Development Director Staci Hulseberg said.

The buildings in question are in the central core of the downtown area along Main Street.

"The reason we're only looking at it in this core is because what we have in this core is buildings that are more densely constructed, they don't have space around the outside of them for easy fire access, they were built prior to our current building and fire codes and we're worried about the fire spread," Hulseberg said.

The majority of the buildings in Glen Ellyn's downtown area were built in the early 1900s, and parts of their infrastructure "generate a significant risk of fire exposure and spread between buildings," according to board documents.

Building code states commercial buildings without fire sprinkler systems need to get an automatic fire alarm system when the existing building is altered to the point that the hard costs of the work involved with the changes exceeds $15,000. The costs of individual projects in the same building over time do not have to be added together.

However, tenants in the downtown area usually do not reach this threshold, officials said.

Officials estimated that, for a small restaurant or store of 2,000 square feet or less, implementing a fire alarm system would likely cost anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000. Several factors play into determining the costs of implementing fire alarm systems, including the size of the protected area.

The village's fire prevention award program offers money awards up to $15,000 to property and business owners in the downtown who implement a fire alarm system.

The cost of installing fire alarm systems could potentially fall on the shoulders of store owners, officials said.

But Trustee Diane McGinley said she wanted to see landlords be responsible for these costs.

"It does not make me comfortable at all knowing that our local movie theater that we send our children to is not well-protected," McGinley said.

"But at the same time, we have to figure out the best way to put the expense where it belongs: not on the taxpayers, not on the residents, not on the shop owners, but the landlords."