Town of Plattsburgh

TOWN COUNCIL ADOPTS KNOX-BOX LAW:

The Plattsburgh Town Council recently adopted a local law requiring Knox-Box secure key systems to provide firefighters quicker access to buildings in possible emergency situations.
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The systems are required for buildings with automatic fire-suppression or standpipe systems that are not staffed 24 hours a day seven days a week and those with automatic fire alarms.

Buildings that use hazardous materials or that are required to prepare emergency-services material safety data sheets or hazardous-chemical inventory forms are required to also keep pertinent documents stored in a document vault.

The law applies to commercial, industrial, multi-family residential, apartment, government, educational, nursing care, churches and other at-risk buildings.

It doesn't apply to owner-occupied one- and two-family dwellings or individual townhouse units. Those owners can elect to take part, though, by meeting with the town codes-enforcement officer and their district's fire chief.

Buildings required to install a system have one year from the effective date of the law, which takes effect once it is received at the State Records and Law Bureau at the New York State Department of State.
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Lamoy said the law also enables volunteer firefighters from the five departments whose districts are in the Town of Plattsburgh — Cadyville, Cumberland Head, District 3, Morrisonville and South Plattsburgh — to spend less time waiting for a key holder to allow access to buildings during a false alarm.

"Our volunteers spend an incredible amount of time training and responding to real emergencies. Any time we can get them back quicker to their families, back in bed, back to work or back to the dinner table is time and money well spent," Lamoy said.

According to a price list available on the company Web site, prices start at $189.

"The best part is the cost of a Knox-Box is really minimal," Lamoy said. "If a fire department had to break into a building just one time (instead), the cost of a Knox-Box would be paid for and more," Lamoy said.