Boston fire officials warned local nightclub and bar owners in November that they would have two months to comply with state sprinkler regulations or be shut down. But three months later, the Fire Department has backed off, giving 57 establishments yet another chance.
It is the second time Boston fire officials have granted extensions to city establishments since a state law passed in 2004 requiring fire sprinklers in bars with capacities of 100 people or more. Fire officials said most of the sites receiving the latest reprieves are in the process of installing sprinklers or have demonstrated they intend to install them.
Officials said they decided they would reevaluate each bar after the deadline, rather than automatically close those not in compliance.
"If we just choose to shut down 50, 60 establishments because we feel they're not making progress enough, I think there'll be an uproar with everybody saying, 'Look, is he being arbitrary with me?' " explained District Chief David Joseph, who took over as acting fire marshal for the city in November.
It was an uproar of a different sort that led the state to pass its tougher sprinkler regulations in 2004. Lawmakers adopted strict rules following the horrific, fast-moving Rhode Island nightclub fire in February 2003 that killed 100 people and injured scores more. The West Warwick club, The Station, lacked fire sprinklers, even though it was routinely jammed with hundreds of partying concertgoers.
The fifth anniversary of the fire passed last week. The Massachusetts state fire marshal, who helped draft the sprinkler law, is now urging local officials statewide to ensure that the provisions of the law are met.
"Collectively the fire service needs to see that this work is completed on schedule," state Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said yesterday in a statement. "We owe that to those who were injured or lost loved ones at the Station nightclub and to ensure the future safety of the club-going public."
Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser said he has been meeting with city lawyers to discuss sprinkler-installation enforcement and he expects compliance soon from most of the bars that have been given more time.
"The goal is to get them sprinkled," he said. "It's one of my top priorities."
The leniency granted by Joseph this week contrasts with the stance of his predecessor, Dennis Keeley, who shuttered three bars in November and vowed to close the rest if they didn't install sprinklers by Jan. 15.
Counting Joseph, five different chiefs have served in the city fire marshal's office since lawmakers passed the sprinkler law.
The high turnover has led to uneven and sometimes lax enforcement, the Fire Department said.
"We're doing the best we can with the staff we have," department spokesman Steve MacDonald said yesterday.
Dot Joyce, spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said yesterday that the mayor is confident that the "fire commissioner and department will make sure that they all comply."
"One of the mayor's top priorities has been and always will be public safety," Joyce said. "Getting these restaurants to comply with the law and install sprinklers is mandatory."
The Fire Safety Act became law on Nov. 15, 2004, and mandated that fire sprinkler systems be installed within three years in all nightclubs, dance halls, discotheques, bars, or other venues "for entertainment purposes" with a capacity of at least 100 people.
The law left it up to local fire officials to determine which establishments fell under the law and were required to install sprinklers, and which could be exempt, such as those that mostly serve food and private function halls that don't hold public events. The law also charged local officials with making sure sprinklers were installed by the deadline, Nov. 15, 2007. It also gave them authority to grant extensions up to a year beyond that deadline.
In Boston, the fire marshal at the time the law passed, Deputy Chief Peter Laizza, and his staff began the task of sifting through records for 1,619 establishments and determined that about half of them fell under the law. Of those, they determined that about 550 already had sprinklers.
Case files for the remaining 284 were handed over to Deputy Chief Richard Mullen, who took over the fire marshal's office in January 2007. The files then went to District Chief George Wyman, who took over in August.
By the time Keeley took over from Wyman in October, the list of bars that needed sprinklers had been winnowed to 173. When Keeley left the post Nov. 15, there were only 85 left.
Keeley had shuttered three bars that morning for noncompliance: Milky Way Lounge & Lanes, a bowling alley and nightclub on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain; Kay's Oasis, a function hall on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester; and Packy Connors, a century-old, family-owned pub on Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury.
All were allowed to reopen when the owners agreed to install sprinklers. Keeley gave them, and the other 85 establishments without sprinklers, up to 60 days to install them. If they didn't, Keeley said at the time, fire officials would shut them down.
"Any club that needs to be sprinklered will be sprinklered," he said in an interview at the time.
Then Joseph took over as city fire marshal.
He has now given 57 of the establishments more time to comply. Four others are either appealing to state officials for an exemption from the sprinkler law or recently lost appeals for exemptions and so have more time to install sprinklers. Joseph said he has also referred seven sites to city lawyers, who are writing letters to the bar owners to ask why they haven't complied. He said the owners of those bars either have not been in contact with his office or have not shown they are installing sprinklers by hiring contractors, securing permits, and submitting plans for the work.
Joseph said he doesn't plan to close them down, however, unless he is supported by a court order.
"This thing did give us the ability to give an extension," Joseph said.
Among the bars now installing sprinklers, he said, some are waiting for the weather to break so they can dig trenches and install water pipes. Some are waiting for permits from city inspectors or approvals from the Boston Water and Sewer Commission to turn on the water to their sprinkler systems, he said.
"Some of the owners aren't bad people," Joseph said. "They want to do it. A lot of them are two thirds, 60 to 80 percent, done. We're pushing them."
Of those establishments referred to city lawyers for follow-up, no one answered the telephone at two of them. Phone numbers could not be found for three others. One owner did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Arthur Donovan, owner of C.F. Donovan's on Savin Hill Avenue in Dorchester, a restaurant and pub that has been referred to city lawyers, said yesterday that he thought the city had dropped him from the list of bars that had to install sprinklers. He had spoken with Keeley, he said, about reclassfying his neighborhood pub as a restaurant, making it exempt from the law.
"We agreed to open the kitchen, to keep the kitchen open as long as the bar is open," Donovan said.
But Joseph said yesterday that Donovan had made no such agreement with him.
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
