Our Code Compliance series features perspectives from industry leaders.
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Menlo Park Fire District
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Menlo Park Fire District
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Well, my name is Gage Slice, and I started my career as a firefighter in the early 2000s. I was a firefighter for years – from wildland firefighting into structural firefighting. After about 17 years of being a firefighter, I decided to transition to fire prevention. It's more code-driven and construction-driven, and I saw the challenge. I thought I would be really good at it and enjoy it. So I moved into prevention, and I've been a fire marshal now for a little over 7 years.
So, rather, new inspections or existing inspections, the fire prevention bureau, which is run by the fire marshal, goes out and do fire inspections, annual fire inspections on occupancies to make sure they're fire safe. On the other side of it, we do new construction inspections and new construction plan checks and new construction meetings.
If you want to build a new building, you have to meet all the newest fire code regulations and codes. Time is of the essence – right? Time is money for a lot of these developers, so trying to get stuff done quickly and efficiently is probably the most important part. But fire prevention as a whole – we just look after people’s safety.
Codes are always evolving. They're always changing. The complexity of the codes back in the early '70s or '60s, when this house was built, was vastly different than they are now. With codes, they get more strict – at least here in California – when tragedy happens. When something happens, they wanna prevent that from happening again.
So over the years, codes have gotten stricter and stricter and stricter. Not to punish people or to make it hard for people to build things – it's just to make everything safer for them.
Yeah. I'd like to say that we prevented every fire – uh-huh. When we go out there and we find violations, we have people fix them. And so I want people to go to these businesses and not have to be afraid of something happening to them.
Yeah – like everything that goes into a hotel room that you have no idea about. As a fire code official, I go into a hotel room and I see all the features that we've always requested – and nobody ever sees this stuff. But it's stuff we put in there to prevent bad things from happening.
Totally. Yeah. So I’m curious if you could speak a bit to the problems that exist. When I learn more about the industry, there’s the complexity of the codes. I also feel like almost every fire department I talk to is under—or in a fire prevention team is understaffed—given the amount of work that exists. So I’m curious how you think about the problems today of being able to stay life safety code compliant.
The fire department is usually funded for emergencies. Fire prevention departments aren’t nearly as highly funded. People don’t necessarily notice what we do all the time. They know we follow the code, and we go out and enforce the code. But generally speaking, fire prevention departments across the board are usually underfunded and understaffed. They require more and more of us every single year. And we, as fire prevention departments, have to be creative in how we handle our business.
How we get things done – it’s tough. Here in California, we have state-mandated inspections where we have to go out and inspect certain occupancies based on the State Fire Marshal’s requirements. We have to get that done no matter what.
On top of that, we have to do new construction inspections, plan checks, inspections of buildings under construction, and handle problems that come up along the way. I always tell people – if you don’t like doing work, don’t be in fire prevention, because it’s never-ending. No matter how much you do, it feels like it never goes away. But I find that rewarding – because it’s different every day, and you’re helping people.
Unless there’s a significant change in staffing or technology, do you think it will be possible to keep up with
the ever-changing demands of construction in the next 5 years?
I find it becoming increasingly difficult. The code is always changing – every 3 years, a new code cycle comes out. So you have to almost relearn the code or at least review what was added or taken away. It’s constantly evolving.
Every jurisdiction also has its own municipal code or local amendments to the fire code.
Here, we’re in a very hilly area – our codes look different from areas in the middle of the desert. The geography changes the standards, so it becomes very difficult for contractors to build across different jurisdictions because everyone has their own amendments on top of the base fire code.
It’s becoming harder and harder to keep up. One of the things I enjoy most is finding ways to be more efficient. Every minute we can shave off – here and there – adds up over weeks, months, and years. You can save so much time just by being efficient.
When it comes to AI in your day-to-day—and considering you have a team of fire plan examiners, fire inspectors, and others working with you—how are they using AI, and what kind of impact are you seeing from it?
Let me give you an example. Back in the day, when we’d sit in meetings with developers, they’d ask us questions – and it was perfectly acceptable to say, “That’s a great question. Let me go back, research it, and I’ll have an answer for you at the next meeting in two weeks.”
That gave me time to return to the office, dig into the code, and come up with a solution – because researching and navigating the code is tedious and can be difficult. But that delays progress.
How do you see ETR AI helping to train or educate newer staff members – to become proficient in fire prevention more quickly?
We do have a lot of new people. They’re more tech-savvy than, say, the older folks in my office.
Being able to use software to find an answer right then and there is very beneficial for them. By typing in a question, getting an answer, and hovering over the code snippet it came from to verify that it’s correct – that’s super helpful.
It helps them learn the code a little better – they might know one specific section that references, say, fire sprinklers, but not realize there are three or four other sections elsewhere in that huge binder that also apply to the same question.
To get a really solid answer, you should research all of those sections – and that’s where a tool like Ichi is so useful. It helps find all the relevant code sections that apply. It’s not black and white when figuring out what’s needed for a building – it’s very complex – so having a tool like Ichi really helps you get through that process.
Why is it important to build something that’s purpose-built for this industry in order to trust it? Is there something unique or special in this field that really requires that kind of specific touch?
Codes in this particular context are very important – because, yeah, you can go to the Google machine and type in a question, but you’re pulling data from all sorts of random sources. You don’t really know where it’s coming from, and you don’t even know if the information is correct.
Some guy could’ve written it in a blog, and the system might be pulling that data and giving you an answer.
But with specific software that only references the actual code, standards, and reliable sources – I think that narrows down the chance for error.
So what it spits out – the answer it gives you – is, for lack of a better word, more correct. It’s closer to being the right answer, not just a made-up one based on info scraped from the web. Using specific standards and codes to get the right answer is important. You don’t want to give people the wrong information.
Awesome. When you think about the next 5 years – or even 10 years – what kind of impact do you think AI and technologies like ECI will have in this space?
I wish I had that crystal ball – yeah. People are scared that AI is going to take over, right? That it’ll get rid of jobs or remove the human element from the work.
But in my specific field, I don’t think that’s the case – I actually think the opposite is true. I believe AI will be used as a tool to make us more efficient. Like I mentioned, everything is about efficiency.
I don’t have time to spend 2 hours researching code sections. So anything I can find – technology that makes my job easier – I’m going to look into it.
And I’m that type of guy – if I don’t know about it, I’m going to research it until I know everything about it.
But I think Ichi, where it’s at now, is absolutely amazing.
