During the final hours of this past Connecticut General Assembly, amended to the 258 page bonding bill, was a dangerous provision mandating the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services Codes and Standards Committee, under the misleading guise of “affordable housing,” to “allow residential occupancies {up to six stories} to be served by a single exit stairway…”

The fire and Emergency Services community was taken by surprise that “politicians” have usurped the traditional codes and standards process and presents a recognized threat to life safety.

Not only did the General Assembly endorse one way out of a building…but under Public Act 24-71 passed about the same time, they stacked the deck on the Codes and Standards Committee {which establishes fire safety and building codes in the state of Connecticut} by outnumbering the two fire service representatives, by adding an additional four voting members who are “residential remodeling; commercial construction; single-family detached residential construction and multifamily residential construction” to oversee your safety in getting out of a building alive during a fire and emergency.

The legislators who were able to override our fire and emergency services professionals, claim that recent single means of egress victories by developers in “Seattle, New York City and Honolulu” is evidence enough that one way out of a building, up to six stories, is OK to do the same here in Connecticut.  In those jurisdictions, recent changes to code, came at the cost of the political process overriding the concerns of firefighters and emergency services.

Disappointing is that many of our friends in the Connecticut General Assembly, either intentionally or unknowingly, have turned their backs on our legitimate alarm. Past experiences, year after year, have proven that getting people out of buildings safely, through sufficient means of egress: exits are the primary means we have to keeping people alive.  We in the fire and emergency services support affordable housing, but not at the cost of occupant and firefighter safety.  There are other means of rewarding developers such as tax incentives and maybe even, reducing profits.

Way back in 1911, a fire in New York City at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, 146 young women were killed as a result of a fire where insufficient exits were primarily responsible.  As a result, Labor Unions and Community Groups throughout the United States demonstrated and mandated fire safety and improved exiting in buildings.

They led the charge for getting people safely out of buildings during fires and emergencies.  In fact, in 1927 the National Fire Protection Association established the “Buildings Exists Code,” which in 1963 until now, became the “Life Safety Code.”  The focus of the “Life Safety Code” has been establishing “means of egress” for occupants. Some members of our Connecticut General Assembly scoff at that, despite pleas from our fire marshals and firefighters. We know that today’s fires and furnishings are much more dangerous and the smoke more toxic than in our legacy fires-fires move to flashover in a few minutes.

On September 17 at 10 a.m. the new Codes and Standards Committee plan to hold the required public hearing on “single means of egress” up to six stories.  That hearing is planned to be held in the Legislative Office Building in Room 2D, 200 Capitol Ave. in Hartford.

For now, this code change would only affect, and place at risk, the residents and firefighters in large fire departments. To try to get this threatening code through, they have added a provision, for now anyway: The capabilities of and resources available to the responding fire and emergency service agency should be considered prior to adopting this appendix. Not all municipalities have the appropriate aerial apparatus, personnel, or water supply to adequately respond to a structure designed using this appendix.”

Wow. Let’s throw our large city firefighters and residents to the wolves…realizing that no city fire department can adequately meet this obligation. These uninformed legislative advocates are suggesting that fire department ladders can be used as the second means of egress.  How asinine.

Your getting out of a building during an emergency will depend upon the availability of a fire department ladder.  And, by the way, what about the firefighters attempting to make the rescues and their families?

This is a clear and ever present danger to our residents and to our fire and emergency services first responders.  We may have a special session of the General Assembly coming up.  Certainly we deserve to have our concerns addressed.  In the meantime, everyone should stand up and be counted and demand that this life threatening proposal be struck down

Pete Buonome, vice president of the Connecticut Fire Department Instructors Association, a 31- year adjunct professor of Fire Science at the University of New Haven and currently Springfield Technical Community College. He also is a retired fire chief and member of the Connecticut Commission on Fire Prevention and Control.

https://www.courant.com/2025/09/14/opinion-a-clear-and-present-danger-facing-ct-we-can-change-this/