The State Fire Marshal’s office has conducted around 3,100 coronavirus spread mitigation compliance checks between June 26 and July 5, yet there hasn’t been any penalization of the rule breakers. State Fire Marshal Butch Browning says that’s because businesses are correcting shortcomings after the first visit.
“It’s when you go back a second time or third time that you might discover the business is doing everything right or you might discover that they are doing something wrong. It’s at that time that you consider penalizing somebody,” said Browning.
Browning says the lack of citations or shutdowns is a strong indicator that businesses care enough about their customers and employees to come into compliance.
“We’re working in cooperation which is what enforcement seeks out to do. Enforcement is not about putting someone in jail. That’s for when everything goes bad,” said Browning.
Browning says after a third check, if there are businesses that are blatantly defying the rules, that’s when further action will be taken, but says it has yet to come to that.
“What we found is that my businesses found innovative ways to make the guidance work and in many cases exceeded our expectations,” sais Browning.
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