[wcip]

>But we don't just wait for buildings to burn down to teach organizations a lesson about their heating contractors -- we have fire codes, and inspectors with teeth.

We did wait for a fire to create building codes, it just was a long time before either of us were born: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_...

There was certainly plenty of fires before that but this one was terrible enough to cause a public outcry.

[iguy]

Sure, I agree that fire rules are written in blood. But not the blood of every single district. Once we've decided, we impose these rules across many cities, millions of buildings.

An individual city council is not free to learn the lessons again the hard way, no matter how tight the budget and how close the elections. Either it meets the code, or it gets closed down.