In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, Hank Clemmensen, First Vice President of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and Chief of the Palatine Rural Fire Protection District of Inverness, IL, said that “Despite recent progress, America still suffers from one of the worst fire problems in the civilized world.”

Quoting from FEMA statistics, Chief Clemmensen noted that: “In 2010, there were more than 1.3 million fires in America, which resulted in the deaths of more than 3,100 Americans and more than 17,000 injuries.”

Employing statistics and estimates from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Chief Clemmensen also noted that “the economic loss due to fires in 2009 (direct and indirect, unreported and reported) was $16.1 billion.” He went on: “When one factors in the total cost of economic and human losses, and the cost of provisions to mitigate or prevent the cost of fires, including fire departments, fire protection equipment and construction, and insurance, the total cost of fire in 2009 was $331 billion. This amount was equal to 2.3 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product in that year.”

Chief Clemmensen was testifying in support of H.R. 2069, the Safe Building Code Incentive Act, which adds a four percent incentive to FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant program and is designed to encourage states to adopt the most current commercial and residential building codes. He cited a 2009 World Bank report, Why Do People Die in Earthquakes? The Costs, Benefits and Institutions of Disaster Risk Reduction in Developing Countries (PDF 264K), which found that when comparing the impact of earthquakes in California with other parts of the world “strict adherence to tough zoning and building codes in California was responsible for the lives saved.”

Chief Clemmensen also raised three issues for consideration by the committee. States should not be able to opt out of – or reduce provisions to – model commercial and residential codes and still receive the four percent bonus. Local jurisdictions should be allowed the latitude to adopt more stringent building and fire codes than the state minimum model code requirements. The legislation should include model commercial and residential building and fire codes.