Fire safety rules: Lausanne rejects appeal by Ticino municipalities

In a ruling published on Thursday, judges in Lausanne found against seven Ticino municipalities and the association representing the canton's municipalities, which had challenged the new fire safety regulation. The ruling makes the rules binding across the whole of Ticino.

The regulation had been tightened by the Council of State after the tragedy in Crans-Montana. The Ticino government wanted to clarify roles and responsibilities in fire safety more precisely, and to revise the deadlines for inspecting installations.

What changes for municipalities

The objections centred on two main points. The first was the introduction of more precise criteria for determining which buildings and installations must undergo periodic checks. The second was a new task for municipal councils, now required to keep an updated list of these buildings, work that involves surveying properties across their territory.

In their ruling, the federal judges acknowledge that complying with the new rules will require greater effort from local authorities. Larger towns, Lugano foremost among them, will likely need to devote extra staff and funds to surveying buildings subject to inspection and organising the relevant checks.

This extra burden, however, was not considered sufficient grounds to uphold the appeal. According to the Lausanne judges, the municipalities and the association failed to prove that the deadline set by the regulation was in fact impossible to meet. The rejection rests on this lack of evidence.

With this ruling, the legal dispute brought by some Ticino municipalities against the cantonal government is now closed. The fire safety regulation introduced after the events in Crans-Montana remains fully applicable, from the largest towns to the smallest municipalities. The rule applies to all Ticino municipalities, not only the seven that filed the appeal together with the association.