My name is Ernie Little who is a member of the Virginia Fire Prevention Association, the International Code Council, and the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association. I have been involve in use of building and fire prevention codes adopted by the Commonwealth of Virginia since 1975 and worked with several building officials, building inspections, fire inspectors, and fire marshals during my career in a career fire and rescue department. I wish to express my support of comments offered by the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association, Virginia Fire Prevention Association, and others who are concerned about the current amendments to the Virginia Statewide Fire Prevention Code with regards to the need for the proposed amendments reflect the consensus of the stakeholders who use it and it is technically correct and able to stand up to any legal challenges. I have reviewed the proposed changes and have found several instances where there are a number of issues with regards to format, mismatched section titles that do not appear to relate to what is in the associated code section, typos in to what code section is being amended, and others that I will illustrate in a separate document that I will enter.

I would like to stress that any code that is proposed to be amended must be techically correct and free from errors that may create issues when enforcement of the fire prevention and building code is necessary. It is vital that we have a building and fire codes that can be used together to allow fire and building code officials to provide a safe builidng environment for the residents, visitors, and businesses that live, stay, or operate in the Commonwealth of Virginia.