Crime & Safety

Fire Marshal Warns Businesses Against 'Scam' Inspections

Company employees who don't expressly identify themselves as fire marshals but carry out inspections for fire safety can fleece a business out of hundreds of dollars in unnecessary fees, IB's fire marshal said.

Imperial Beach Fire Inspector Tom Santos is warning local businesses to be wary of fire inspection businesses that “fly under the radar.”

Their services often require no license and employees carry themselves like fire marshals.

"They usually come in groups of two or three, very authoritative, and really have themselves well-rehearsed," Santos said. In some instances he has seen fire safety inspection companies changing their names and websites. When visiting a business, he has heard of businesses elsewhere in California who were threatened that if inspections weren't immediately paid for, the doors would be chained shut, Santos said.

Fire inspections conducted for city businesses are performed as part of the fees associated with your business license, and the fire marshal is the only person with the authority to carry out a true inspection.

"It's an arbitrary thing to determine it's safe or not depending on my opinion. Those are the ones that are tricky because that's their scam and their loophole."
 
If your business has questions as to whether or not an inspection is necessary, call the Imperial Beach Fire Department at 619-423-8223.

"Anyone can come through and say whether your business is safe or not, but it's required by us," Santos said. "Anyone else is just conveying their opinion. No one else is state required to do so, or regulated."

When the San Diego County Fire Marshals Working Group meets Wednesday, Santos said the subject would be discussed again. Similar businesses have been found operating across San Diego and California.

"We want to let them know their tactics are needed or wanted," Santos said. In the future, he may compile a list of the 16 to 20 fire extinguisher service companies qualified to operate in the city. Santos is also on the San Diego County Fire Prevention Board.

Three incidents of this kind has taken place within the past few years, Santos said.

The latest of these kinds of inspections was carried out at the Beach Club Grille on Seacoast Drive by a company named Fire Service Corporation, based in San Clemente, CA.

In August, a cook at the restaurant was approached for an inspection.

"They typically look for a busy place and then hit someone far down the chain of the command," Santos said. "Initially I thought it was targeting folks with limited English-speaking ability but they're just looking for somebody that isn't the boss."

Later, owner John Haupt was sent a bill for $120.

After a call was made to the company by inspector Santos, the bill was repealed.

Gloria, who refused to give her last name and who works in the accounts payable department of the company, said rescinding the bill doesn't mean anything.

"Just because the fire marshal calls us, it isn't stated anywhere that we have to void the service," she said. "It doesn't have to be a fire marshal that calls and says that wasn't authorized. We removed the bill in good faith."

Gloria said the company stands behind the company's performance, which is based on experience, not by certification or license.

"In most restaurants the cook is most of the time the person that's in charge. Whether they have authorization to OK services or not, that's between them and their boss," she said. "How is our technician to know that the person who is talking to him is not authorized to do all this?"

Fire Service Corporation Fire Protection Services technicians are paid on commission only, she said.


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