The Property Management Shop
by Marc Wilson
Q. A representative from the Department of Building Inspection conducted a routine inspection of my 12-unit apartment building last week. Today I received a "Notice of Violation" which stated that I needed to "repair, maintain fire escape drop ladder in working condition (SEC908HC)." The notice went on to say that at the re-inspection date I would be "required to demonstrate working condition of all fire escape drop ladders and provide the necessary precautions during demonstration." I'm 70 years old! Am I expected to climb the fire escape and operate this piece of machinery? Is this a new law? What should I do?A. Most fire escape systems in San Francisco have some type of drop ladder designed to drop from the first floor fire escape landing to the sidewalk. Some are counter weight ladders that are lowered down and others are folding ladders that are cranked up and down by the user. Drop ladders are made of metal with moving parts. It is therefore important that they are "serviced" once a year.
They should be greased and/or oiled and activated to insure proper operation. Many of the drop ladders in San Francisco probably have rusted cranks, broken cables, or other malfunctions that could render them inoperable. To my knowledge, there is no law that states drop ladders need to be inspected or serviced on a yearly basis or any other basis. You are simply required to keep your drop ladders in working order whether you service them once a year or, as is the case with many of my clients, you never service them at all.
Drop ladders have probably not achieved "issue" status in the past because their operation or non-operation is rarely life threatening. It is very rare to have a quick moving fire in San Francisco that forces tenants to throw themselves out the window or off the first floor fire escape landing. In spite of these facts, you should service your drop ladders on a yearly basis. There are a few good companies in town that will contract to service your drop ladders on a yearly basis. This is really no different than the yearly inspection of your fire alarm system, fire sprinklers, and boiler. Just give me a call if you need their names and numbers.
For whatever reason, the Department of Building Inspection recently made drop ladder demonstrations a mandatory part of their routine inspection criterion. I guess we should just be lucky that they are not asking us to turn on the fire sprinklers as well. I don't think anyone at the Building Department has considered the realities of asking a 70 year-old man to scale the fire escape and operate a 300-pound piece of machinery that is designed to be used "only in the event of an emergency." The obvious solution is for the City to require yearly service, and for qualified vendors to issue certification stamps just like they do for fire extinguishers and fire alarm systems. I was at a routine inspection last month when the inspector asked me, with a straight face, to scale the fire escape and operate the drop ladder. I said I would be glad to if he wouldn't mind standing underneath it when I let it fall. Seriously, I just told him that I had the ladder serviced yearly, gave him the name and number of the vendor and asked him to call and verify and/or make an appointment with the vendor to operate the ladder. One way or the other, there was no chance that I would scale the fire escape to operate a 300-pound machine designed only for emergency use. This is a job for professionals.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the SFAA or the SF Apartment Magazine. Marc Wilson has been managing and selling San Francisco apartment buildings for 15 years. Please send your questions concerning property management and/or apartment building sales to Marc Wilson at 1699 Van Ness Avenue, SF, CA 94109. He can also be reached at 415-229-1275. © Copyright 2001