Inside Bay Area - Fire codes put heat on Home Depot
SAN CARLOS — Home Depot may be able to help you remodel your kitchen, but according to vigilant shoppers and the fire marshal, they could have trouble keeping you safe from a fire.
The fire lanes surrounding Home Depot's store — on Old County Road at Brittan Avenue — have long been clogged with stacked wooden pallets, dismantled store shelving and overstock merchandise, such as bags of garden soil and a hot tub, according to eyewitnesses. Furthermore, they say, the store takes up dozens of parking spaces on the sides and back of the building with the same, most of it haphazardly stacked and unsecured.
On Tuesday a resident contacted the Times after noticing floral displays constructed out of concrete blocks in the fire lane on the north side of the building.
According to International Fire Code, there must be a 20-foot-wide open lane around the entire perimeter of the building to allow a firetruck access in case of a fire or other emergency. On Wednesday a reporter could just barely pass a regular-size sedan around the building's south side due to tarps, pallets and other items cluttering the thruway.
