CENTERBURG — Centerburg residents likely saw Central Ohio Joint Fire District personnel training at the former Interchurch Social Services building on North Clayton Street last week.
They also might have noticed a Red X sign on the outside of the building.
The sign is part of COJFD’s abandoned and vacant building program. Chief Mark McCann said the program helps the department safeguard the community and prevent potential hazards.
The program is based on the Ohio Fire Code section 311.5. It includes exterior markings that indicate the building’s condition to fire and rescue personnel.
McCann acknowledged the department likely will not use the signs very much, but said marking a building has several advantages.
“Number one, it kind of tells everyone who comes here from a mutual aid fire department … this building probably should be abandoned, or it was abandoned but in good shape when it was left,” he told council members in March.
The signs also support risk-based decision-making during an emergency response.
“Everything we do is on risk analysis,” McCann said. “We do life safety first, incident stabilization second, and property conservation [third]. So when we see markings on buildings, they help us get through that process a little more quickly.”
The signs include three levels:
• White X on red square (Red X) — structural or interior hazards exist to a degree that consideration should be given to limiting firefighting to exterior operations only, with entry only occurring for known life hazards.
• Single white slash on red square — structural or interior hazards exist, and interior firefighting or rescue operations should be conducted with extreme caution.
• Solid red square — normal structural conditions at the time of marking.
McCann said the 2-by-2-foot signs must be placed on any side with a building entrance.
Informed command decisions
The signs are part of COJFD’s risk-reduction program. McCann said they support informed incident command decisions.
A byproduct of the marking system is that it encourages property maintenance and remediation.
“We don’t use it for that, but you could say, hey, this building is so poor we’re not going to try to save it much or do much to save it,” he told the council.
“For you guys, it sends an outward message that we posted that you shouldn’t be in there. So for vagrants, homeless and all that, that building was condemned, and we’ve marked it as such.”
McCann said that after the village demolishes the former ISS building, he did not know of any other building the department plans to mark at this time.
