Fire department home inspection

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Jul 7, 2017
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Austin, TX
My house is a Bed and Breakfast. No, not an AirBnB - it's a real, old fashioned B&B with breakfast and daily maid service.

As such we have to be licensed by the City and inspected each year. Recently, a local Fire Department official stopped by (unannounced, of course) for a fire safety inspection. No problem, we make sure to keep everything up to snuff. I'm going through the house with him, letting him test all the smoke alarms and check inspection date tags on all the fire extinguishers which we have every place we're required to have them.

Everything is going really smoothly - so much so that he thanked me for making this an easy inspection for him.

Did I mention I have a basement? He was surprised by that as we don't have many basements here in Central Texas, but I actually have a full basement. There's a smoke alarm and fire extinguisher there as well so we start heading down the stairs.

The friendly fireman jokingly says, "Having a basement is fine, so long as you're not building bombs or explosive missiles down here."

This is the first thing he saw . . .

Worbench2018-May.jpg
 
So what was the comment after the basement tour? It's like a cliffhanger. You left out the best part.
 
One of these days I'm going to *HAVE* to start my full scale projects the AIM-9, and maybe just maybe, a MK-82 Snakeye. Then invite my sister (a Fire Inspector) over for her response.
 
Wait a minute, those windows don't look underground. Must be a walkout basement? Otherwise looks like a regular basement. I'd love to have a work area like that.


Tony
 
Wait a minute, those windows don't look underground. Must be a walkout basement? Otherwise looks like a regular basement. I'd love to have a work area like that.
Tony

Yep, house is on a hill. Three steps down from ground level into the basement. Nice light from the windows but it still stays cool in the Texas Summer.

I'm very fortunate.
 
Great story.......reminds me:
Years back when the heat came down from the ATF and anyone that did not have an LEUP with storage couldn't buy motors from vendors at launches w/o a LEUP with storage, I decided I'd have to try the LEUP route.
I have two out buildings on my lot, one is a garage, the other a concrete block shed that looks like a blockhouse. The "blockhouse" looked promising for storage away from my house.
All the "how to" information I gathered to get an LEUP - always mentioned you had to get your local Fire Dept. on board and meet their requirements - before you entertained the ATF agent.

So, I prepared a Christmas gift basket of goodies and dropped by the local firehouse in my neighborhood.
After introducing myself to the guys, they took me to the Chief's office.

We had a nice chat, but it became apparent that they had absolutely no idea what HPR was - or what it was they were supposed to do, or why they needed to be concerned about it...they seemed unfamiliar with what the ATF was even trying to do, making us get an explosive magazine for a hobby.

I sent money to the Lawsuit fund instead......fortunately, everything worked out.
 
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