34-year-old rule blocks permits for home fixes

As many as 50 homeowners on Oahu seeking building permits have been told by the Board of Water Supply that they can’t proceed until they install a fire prevention sprinkler system because their homes are too far from the nearest fire hydrant or the water flow from a hydrant is too low.

The backlog of permits has been mounting since April when the utility decided to begin enforcing a rule on the agency’s books that had gone unimplemented since 1977. The decision to apply the rule was made by former BWS Manager and Chief Engineer Wayne Hashiro, who cited concerns about fire dangers due to Honolulu’s increasing density, an agency spokesman said. Hashiro retired in July.

The rule sets a maximum distance of 175 feet from the nearest fire hydrant for any new construction or upgrade on a single-family home. If a hydrant meets the distance requirement, it also must have a minimum flow rate of 1,000 gallons per minute before a permit will be granted, the rule states.

To accommodate homeowners who do not meet the requirements, BWS officials consulted with the Honolulu Fire Department and decided to allow projects to proceed if the homeowner installs a sprinkler system, said Kurt Tsue, BWS spokesman.

However, several homeowners attending a monthly meeting of the BWS directors Monday said they were having to shelve their renovation projects because the cost of installing a sprinkler system was prohibitive.

Kailua resident Stan Krasniewski and wife Barbara said they discovered the new enforcement policy recently when their application for a permit to add two bedrooms and two bathrooms to their Kailua home got hung up at the Board of Water Supply.

After being told the nearest fire hydrant was 286 feet from their property line, the couple said they were informed of the sprinkler option. They said they were quoted anywhere from $10,000 to $13,000 to install such a system.

"This is nothing more than extortion in the name of fire protection," said Stan Krasniewski.

Krasniewski said if the city believes homes are only safe from fire if they are within 175 feet of a hydrant with a 1,000-gallon-per-minute flow rate, then they should provide that to all homes.

Asking homeowners to install sprinklers "acknowledges the BWS’ inability to provide even the most basic service of fire protection for all Oahu residents."

The Krasniewskis are among about 40 to 50 Oahu homeowners whose permits were held up until they install a fire prevention sprinkler system, Tsue said.

The 1977 rules were based on standards adopted from the National Board of Fire Underwriters, Tsue said.

After receiving complaints from the public about the new enforcement policy, BWS officials began working with the Fire Department to see whether more current standards from the National Fire Protection Association could be used as the basis to revise the rules, Tsue said. The BWS will continue to meet weekly with the department to possibly revise the rules, Tsue said.

The nonprofit NFPA bills itself as the "world’s leading advocate of fire prevention and an authoritative source on public safety."

Barbara Krasniewski said she was hopeful the BWS would be able to come up with rules that better reflected the particular characteristics of a neighborhood, such as the larger-than-average lot sizes that are found in Kailua. She said she surveyed the homes within a three-block area in her neighborhood and found that about half of the homes were more than 175 feet from a fire hydrant.

She added that Kailua firefighters she consulted told her that the proximity of her home to the nearest fire hydrant would not jeopardize their ability to fight a fire should one break out at her home.

Carol Fanning, a Maunalani Heights resident, told the BWS directors that she had done two previous renovations on her home in 1994 and 1995 with no problems.

"If I had gotten my application in before April, I would have been fine. It’s the inequity under this law that is simply not fair," she said.