Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services
The Office of Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC) is responsible for providing various services to New York State firefighters, emergency responders, state and local government agencies, public and private colleges and the citizens of New York.
On the SUNY Potsdam Campus, OFPC performs annual fire safety inspections. They perform these inspections in all campus buildings and enforce the NYS Uniform codes, namely the NYS Fire and Property Maintenance codes. These inspections are performed annually to help educate the faculty, staff and students to better enhance fire safety and prevention, not only on campus but also at home. OFPC also provides fire and life safety consultation and training to the campus community.
Fire Safety Inspection Process
The fire safety inspections start with a preliminary inspection of all buildings. This preliminary inspection cites Fire and Property Maintenance code violations and sets the severity and abatement dates. The severity can range from Severe (abate now) to Minimal (abate within one month). The majority of the violations cited are of minimal severity.
After one month, a re-inspection is performed only for the violations cited during the preliminary inspection. At any time when all violations have been remedied for a specific building, a Certificate of Compliance for the building will be issued by OFPC. If there are any violations that have not been abated, the campus will receive an "Order to Comply" from OFPC for the specific building violations. The campus now has the option to either abate the outstanding violations within one month or create a Compliance Plan for any violations that may not be remedied with in one month. The compliance plan identifies the violation, provides a remedy path and sets a date for abatement. The plan is then submitted to OFPC for their approval.
The final inspection is performed any time after one month from the re-inspection date. If there are any violations not remedied and not on a compliance plan, the College will receive a penalty (fine) from OFPC. The fine is calculated at $50 per day starting with the original inspection violation date and ending with the actual abatement date. If a compliance plan exists for a certain inspection cycle, OFPC will perform an inspection when the abatement date becomes due. As before, if a violation has not been remedied, OFPC will assess a penalty.