Blue ribbons all around — for the Greenfield Fire Department, state Rep. Paul Mark and the state Fire Marshal’s Office.
After lots of angst last year over the prospect of rigorous new fire codes shutting out many traditional local food vendors from the Franklin County Fair, local firefighters found a fix.
Fred Steiner, the fair’s president, said all of the vendors plan to return when the fair opens Thursday, despite a controversy last year over the state’s fire codes requiring expensive upgrades for cooking equipment that emits grease-laden vapors, like grills and deep fryers in booths and tents.
Many vendors told The Recorder last year that it would be hard to justify spending upwards of $5,000 to upgrade their booths with fire suppression systems and cooking hoods to comply with the codes to participate in an event that’s just four days long.
Such safety measures have their place when it comes to permanent eating establishments. But applying them rigidly to a short-time event struck many in the community as an overreach by state government — one that would deprive fairgoers not only of traditional fried treats but also deprive community groups, such as Hager’s Farm, the Bernardston Kiwanis Club and the Four Leaf Clover, of needed financial support.
The National Fire Prevention Association codes adopted in January 2015 seemed to leave Greenfield Fire Department with little wiggle room for short-term events like the fair. But through hard work and creative thinking, wiggle room emerged.
Greenfield Fire Chief Robert Strahan said he was able to work with the fire marshal to find alternative methods for the vendors to become code-compliant, in part because the department stations a fire engine and crew at the Wisdom Way fairgrounds throughout the fair.
“We also had some new guidelines set by the state fire marshal for exemptions on frying under tents — there are new requirements, but they won’t need suppression systems.”
Those new requirements include using tents that are rated fire-resistant and keeping a safe distance between the cooking appliances and the general public, which seem like good, common sense, but not costly measures.
“The Fire Department did one hell of a job over the winter; everything has been corrected,” said Steiner. Fair organizers are so happy with the outcome that they named the fire department one of the grand marshals of this year’s parade. “It’s a big relief, all the vendors are back with minor things to do,” said Steiner.
State Rep. Paul Mark said he brokered talks between Greenfield fire officials and the state fire marshal.
“The marshal put the Greenfield chief into a working group with other chiefs. They were very helpful and willing to help, and I was willing to file legislation if that’s what it took, but they got to a place where that was not necessary,” Mark said.
It’s nice to see that common sense can still prevail. Once again we owe local firefighters a big thank you.