HB5480eng 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB5480 Engrossed LRB104 19938 BDA 33388 b

AN ACT concerning safety.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Fire Investigation Act is amended by changing Sections 6 and 6.1 as follows:

(425 ILCS 25/6) (from Ch. 127 1/2, par. 6)

Sec. 6. Investigation and record of fires; Office of the State Fire Marshal.

(a) The chief of the fire department shall investigate the cause, origin and circumstances of every fire occurring in a municipality or fire protection district, or in any area or on any property which is furnished fire protection by the fire department of such municipality or fire protection district, by which property has been destroyed or damaged, and shall especially make investigation as to whether such fire was the result of carelessness or design. Such investigation shall be begun within two days, not including Sunday, of the occurrence of such fire, and the Office shall have the right to supervise and direct such investigation whenever it deems it expedient or necessary. The officer making investigation of fires occurring in cities, villages, towns, fire protection districts or townships shall forthwith notify the Office and shall by the 15th of the month following the occurrence of the fire, furnish to the Office a statement of all facts relating to the cause and origin of the fire, and such other information as may be called for in a format approved or on forms provided by the Office.

(a-5) The Office shall investigate the cause, origin, and circumstance of a fire or an explosion in which fire is presumed to be a contributing factor in a death. Upon discovery of a fire-related death at the scene of the incident, the chief of the fire department or the chief's designee shall notify the Office to initiate its investigation. Notwithstanding the notification requirements in subsection (a), the Office may request the fire chief or the chief's designee to take reasonable steps to maintain control of the scene and, if making such request, the Office shall provide an estimated time of arrival to the fire chief or the chief's designee. If the fire chief or the chief's designee has agreed to maintain control of the scene, the fire chief or the chief's designee may turn over control of a scene to a law enforcement officer. The fire chief, designee, or law enforcement officer is not required to maintain a scene (i) after the arrival of a representative of the Office or (ii) upon advisement from the Office that it is no longer necessary to maintain control of the scene, whichever is first. This Section does not prohibit a fire department from conducting an investigation in conjunction with the Office.

(b) In every case in which a fire is determined to be a contributing factor in a death, the coroner of the county where the death occurred shall report the death to the Office as provided in Section 3-3013 of the Counties Code.

(c) The Office shall keep a record of all fires occurring in the State, together with all facts, statistics and circumstances, including the origin of the fires, which may be determined by the investigations provided by this act; such record shall at all times be open to the public inspection, and such portions of it as the State Director of Insurance may deem necessary shall be transcribed and forwarded to him within fifteen days from the first of January of each year.

(d) In addition to the reporting of fires, the chief of the fire department shall furnish to the Office such other information as the State Fire Marshal deems of importance to the fire services.

(Source: P.A. 101-82, eff. 1-1-20.)

(425 ILCS 25/6.1)

Sec. 6.1. Fire and hazardous material incident reporting rules. The State Fire Marshal may adopt necessary rules for the administration of the reporting of fires, hazardous material incidents, and other incidents or events that the State Fire Marshal deems of importance to the fire services. The reporting of such information shall be based upon the nationally recognized standards of the United States Fire Administration's National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS) Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS).

(Source: P.A. 101-82, eff. 1-1-20.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.