Tulsa’s food truck owners have had a complicated year keeping up with ever-changing permitting and fire safety laws related to their mobile units.
Last year, legislators passed laws to streamline permits and require fire suppression systems. It left many in the Latino food vendor community wondering how they could afford the changes.
Things changed this year, after lawmakers reversed the fire suppression requirement. But the argument over effective food truck fire safety isn’t fully resolved.
How did we get here?
Rep. Derrick Hildebrant, R-Catoosa, and Sen. Christi Gillespie, R-Broken Arrow, authored House Bill 1076 last year. It went into effect last November.
HB 1076 allows food truck vendors to operate anywhere in the state without getting permits in different cities. Instead, mobile vendors can apply to the Oklahoma State Department of Health to receive a Food Establishment license.
A second law, House Bill 2459, required mobile food trucks using propane to obtain a state permit, get yearly inspections from the Oklahoma Liquefied Petroleum Gas Administration and renew annually with State Fire Marshal inspections. The legislation, authored by Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, and Sen. Grant Green, R-Wellston, also required fire suppression systems.
This led to high costs for vendors. Several food truck owners told the Flyer they spent between $4,000 and $5,000 to install a fire suppression system in a single truck.
New law removes some requirements, keeps others
Hildebrant told the Flyer he learned about the consequences of the bills in December, leading to the passage of House Bill 3369 earlier this year. It goes into effect Nov. 1.
The new bill removes the fire suppression system requirement only if the food truck carries at least two portable class K-rated fire extinguishers and all employees complete yearly fire safety training.
It eliminates the requirement for annual inspections by the Liquified Petroleum Gas Administration. Food truck owners are still required to get yearly inspections from the State Fire Marshal.
“I just think it was an honest kind of an oversight of just not thinking through the overhead suppression,” said Gillispie, who co-sponsored HB 3369. “That’s why it’s really important for every single industry to really get out and advocate for their industry because, you know, we cannot possibly be experts on every single issue that, you know, could pop up.”
Is it a safe option?
Fire safety in food trucks remains up for debate.
Based on evidence presented to lawmakers, Hildebrant said, It is safer for food truck operators to have two portable fire extinguishers rather than a fire suppression system.
“We ran this through the fire chiefs. We ran this through the Fire Marshal. We ran this through fire protection agencies,” Hildebrant said. “And they all saw the reasoning and rationale of all of that.”
Meanwhile, Tulsa Fire Department Assistant Fire Marshal Bryan Runyan thinks otherwise.
Fire suppression systems fall under the International Fire Code 2018, Runyan said, which states a food truck must have a minimum of a vent hood with suppression.
Tulsa Fire inspects for fire line safety, including checking for the presence and maintenance of fire extinguishers and hood vents, Runyan said.
“If we showed up to a mobile food vehicle, they did not have the proper permits at that point, they’re not going to be operational,” Runyan said. “So, if you don’t have the correct permits, you’re not going to operate. So, it’s as simple as that.”
Runyan said the new law doesn’t go far enough with fire suppression.
“You’re asking people to try to become firefighters that have no experience with these extinguishers, try to put out a fire and put themselves in danger, and we don’t want to see that,” Runyan said.
Limbo between laws
Many food truck vendors are in limbo. The old law requiring a fire suppression system remains in place until the new one eliminating that requirement goes into effect Nov. 1. Food truck vendors that open between now and then may be out of compliance without a fire suppression system.
Runyan said they’ll continue educating food truck owners about the legislative changes and remind them the laws could be adjusted — again.
“At this point we would encourage people to put in the suppression system because it makes it safer,” Runyan said. “It is what the fire code requires. However, two smarter legislators think they know more, so they deregulate it. So it’s their option. We can’t enforce what’s not law.”
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
