Fire Marshal's Office

The mission of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Fire Marshal’s Office is to protect our citizens and visitors to our community from the perils of fire, explosions, and other hazardous conditions. Our mission will be accomplished by highly trained and dedicated staff in partnership with other City of Kalamazoo entities, and the community.

We will actively participate within our community, serve as role models, and strive to effectively and efficiently utilize all resources made available. This is accomplished through aggressive criminal investigation of fire and explosive incidents, quality fire protection engineering services, support of area agencies in fire suppression, enforcement of the Fire Code, and public fire prevention and safety education.

The City of Kalamazoo has over 3000 businesses, multi-residential housing, and other commercial properties, which are inspected or have pre-incident surveys conducted on an annual basis. The majority are conducted by the 30 officers assigned to our five different fire stations throughout the City. The Fire Marshal’s Office also has a role in the following processes within the City:

• Liquor Control Commission license transactions: Persons, entities, and corporations who request a liquor license or liquor license transactions can have technical inspections conducted of the facility at the location where the license will be held.
• Site Plan Reviews: The Fire Marshal reviews all plans of new businesses or a change in use of a business. This is to ensure that fire prevention and life safety measures are implemented to protect the public and employees.
• Salvage and Recycling License Inspections: The Fire Marshal annually inspects all facilities which apply or hold a salvage or recycling license within the City of Kalamazoo.
• Technical Inspections: These are conducted in conjunction with the Building Official, Electrical Inspectors, Zoning Inspectors, Mechanical and Plumbing Inspectors, and Building Inspectors from Community Planning & Development. These inspections are conducted at the property owner’s request, referral from basic fire inspections, and via citizen complaints of building hazards. Inspections are conducted to determine suitability of a building for use and occupancy.

Fire Investigations

Origin and cause determination of fires that occur in the City are conducted by the Fire Marshal when there are suspicious circumstances, high loss, injury/fatality, and when the cause is not obvious to the Incident Commander.