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6.C. - Page 17 of 35 <br />• A number of city and county officials were aware of the warehouse and its live/work <br />communal activities but did not take action that may have prevented the disaster.7 <br />• A variety of fire and building code violations existed in the warehouse.$ <br />The revelations surrounding the Oakland Ghost Ship fire led to an investigation into the building <br />inspection records of eleven large Bay Area fire departments by the Bay Area News Group <br />(BANG) which resulted in a June 1, 2018 Mercury News article entitled, Burned Out: How <br />overwhelmed fire inspectors fail to protect us.9 The article revealed that many of the fire <br />departments that were investigated by BANG routinely failed to perform all of their required <br />annual inspections. Prevention divisions within these major fire departments, which are <br />responsible for inspections, were described as "overwhelmed and often disorganized." Failures <br />were attributed to "antiquated data management systems, small staffs and difficulty keeping up <br />with problem properties that require repeat visits."10 <br />The one fire department in San Mateo County that was included in BANG's investigation was <br />the Redwood City Fire Department. The article revealed that: <br />• Of the 17 public and private schools within its jurisdiction, the Redwood City Fire <br />Department had inspected four of the schools only once and 13 others only twice between <br />2012 and 2017 when each of the schools should have been inspected at least six times." <br />• In 2017, 18 percent of Redwood City apartments, hotels, and motels had not been <br />inspected as required. 12 <br />• Between 2010 and 2017, 16 percent of apartments, hotels, and motels were overdue for <br />their annual inspections by 6 months or more. 13 <br />SB 1205, enacted in 2018, now requires fire departments to report annually to their governing <br />bodies (referred to in SB 1205 as their "administering authority") on their compliance with state <br />inspection requirements (referred to throughout this report as an "Annual Report"). The <br />governing body may be a city council, a fire district board for departments serving multiple <br />cities, or a county board of supervisors. This legislation seeks to hold fire departments <br />accountable and offers a mechanism to ensure compliance with inspection laws. <br />7 Ibid. <br />8 Ibid. <br />9 Thomas Peele, `Burned Out How overwhelmed fire inspectors fail to protect us", The Mercury News/East Bay <br />Times, June 1, 2018. <br />10 Ibid. <br />11 Ibid. <br />12 Ibid. <br />13 Ibid. <br />2018-2019 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury <br />106 <br />