The Flea Market Complaint
You respond to an anonymous overcrowding complaint at a 9,000-square-foot former auto parts store now operating as an indoor flea market with 74 vendor tables. At 2:15 p.m. you count roughly 210 people. The rear exit door is chained shut. One front door is blocked by a pallet of merchandise. Three interior aisles measure 26 inches. Several vendors are using daisy-chained extension cords, one is decanting a 20-pound propane cylinder from a larger tank inside the sales area, and no occupant load sign is posted. The manager says the owner is out of town and refuses to open a locked storage room. There is a manual fire alarm with horns, and no sprinklers.
1. Sort the findings into immediate action versus written notice, and give your basis for each.
Read the worked answer
Immediate action - unsafe conditions:
- Chained rear exit and pallet-blocked front door. Two exits are compromised at once. This warrants an order to clear the doors on the spot and a written directive that they remain operable; a locked exit is the single most fatal finding in the building.
- Overcrowding. 210 people in 9,000 square feet of mercantile space is beyond the calculated occupant load under any reasonable factor. Order the population reduced to the calculated load and the load posted.
- Propane decanting indoors. Transferring LP-gas inside an occupied space is a fire and explosion hazard with no acceptable mitigation. Order it stopped immediately and remove the containers.
Written notice with a compliance date:
- Aisles at 26 inches (exit access and fire department access).
- Daisy-chained extension cords used as permanent wiring - cite the electrical provisions in IFC Chapter 6 and require permanent receptacles.
- Missing occupant load sign.
Document the time each order was given and to whom. Immediate orders are recorded in the report as verbal plus written confirmation before you leave the site.
2. Show how you calculate and apply the occupant load.
Read the worked answer
The number has to come from the code table, not from the vendor count or the owner's opinion.
- Mercantile floor area uses 60 gross square feet per occupant; a street-floor market uses the lower 30 gross figure because it assumes denser circulation among displays. Choose the factor that matches how the space is actually used and say so in the report. At 9,000 square feet, the range is 150 occupants at 60 gross to 300 at 30 gross.
- Net the space against tables and displays only where the code permits it. Vendor tables and merchandise are obstructions, not floor area that can be deducted, unless the provisions allow it.
- Apply the measured condition: 210 people present exceeds the 150-occupant calculation, so the space is overcrowded on the more generous reading of the tables.
Consequences beyond the crowd: number of exits required at that occupant load, exit width at 0.2 inch per occupant, and whether travel distance to the two doors is satisfied across a 9,000-square-foot box. Post the approved occupant load at the main exit and require the operator to count and control entry. Note in the report that two exits with one chained means the building was effectively single-exit all afternoon.
3. The manager refuses to open the locked storage room. What is the correct next step, and what goes in your report?
Read the worked answer
Do not force the door, and do not drop the item.
- State clearly, in front of a witness, that you are conducting a code-compliance inspection under the adopted code and ask again for access to the storage room. Record the refusal verbatim, with time, name, and title of the person refusing.
- Note that the storage room is part of the occupied premises and may contain the propane supply, additional merchandise, or sleeping or cooking arrangements - unknown hazards cannot be assumed benign.
- Cite the refusal in the inspection report and forward the file to the jurisdiction's legal advisor to obtain an administrative inspection warrant. Continue the rest of the inspection and do not let the refusal delay the exit and overcrowding orders, which are already supported by observed conditions.
- Schedule a re-inspection in writing and document the outcome.
The report should contain: date and time of entry and basis for the inspection, who was present, measured conditions with photographs, occupant count method, each code section cited, orders given and when, the refusal and the request for legal follow-up, and the re-inspection date. Attach the complaint record. Reports that read as a chronology of what you saw, measured, and ordered survive both appeal and litigation; reports that read as conclusions do not.