The Violation That's Already There Before You Walk In
A commercial inspection address with a fire lane that hasn't been re-striped in four years is already a violation before the inspector gets out of the vehicle. The parking lot has unmarked segments where delivery trucks routinely park. The address number above the main entrance is partially obscured by a sign installed last year. Neither of these are the building owner's top-of-mind concern — they're background conditions that have been present long enough to stop registering as problems.
The inspection checklist that triggers a boolean for "Address not visible from the street" and "Fire lane not identified" creates a written record that those conditions exist, when they were observed, and by whom. The paired Note field for each item carries the specific observation: "Address numerals partially obscured by awning installed 2023, visible from southbound lane only." That's the documentation that survives a re-inspection, a dispute, and a follow-up enforcement action.
The Extinguisher Items Are Not One Item
Fire extinguisher compliance on a single-occupancy commercial property involves at least six distinct conditions, each of which can be violated independently: mounting height 3-5 feet from the floor, placement in an approved location, required signage, accessibility (not blocked by storage), extinguisher present at all required points, and annual service current.
This template treats each of those conditions as a separate boolean-plus-note record. An extinguisher that is present, accessible, correctly hung at 4 feet, but has an expired annual service tag has one violation flag. An extinguisher that is mounted at the correct height and has a current service tag but is blocked behind a shelf unit of merchandise has a different single violation flag. A space with no extinguisher at all has the "Provide Extinguisher" flag. These are not equivalent violations, and a single "Fire Extinguisher: Non-Compliant" checkbox fails to communicate which remediation action is required.
The note fields make the distinction actionable. "Require annual service — last tag dated June 2022, extinguisher is a 10lb ABC dry chemical unit in the northwest corner" tells the building manager exactly what needs to happen and which unit.
The Electrical Panel Walk
The electrical compliance section addresses the conditions that fire prevention inspections routinely find in older commercial occupancies: extension cords used as permanent wiring (including holiday lights treated as year-round installations), multi-plug adapters substituting for properly wired outlets, substandard wiring, exposed conductors not in conduit, unlabeled circuit breakers, open knockouts in the breaker box, breakers taped or wedged in the on position to prevent tripping, 30-inch by 36-inch clearance violations in front of the panel, missing covers on junction boxes and outlet boxes, and missing service enclosure signage.
The clearance violation is the one building managers consistently underestimate. Storage gets pushed against the electrical panel because the panel room is the only available space. A 30-by-36-inch clear zone in front of a 200-amp service panel in a 600-square-foot storage area feels like a lot of empty floor. The code rationale — that firefighters need unobstructed access to the panel during a fire event — is abstract until the first time clearance is actually needed.
KNOX Box and KNOX Switch as separate boolean fields capture emergency access hardware. A KNOX box without a current key update, or a KNOX switch that controls a gate without functioning connectivity to dispatch, are compliance conditions that generate their own remediation path.
The fire alarm panel items — indicator light status, pull station condition, fire alarm bell signage — complete the system-level picture. A building with a functioning fire alarm panel that nobody has checked the indicator lights on in two years, because the panel is in a utility closet that maintenance visits only when something else needs servicing, has an unknown system status. The inspection record resolves that unknown with a date and an inspector's name attached.