SQF 2.7.1.2 - Food Defense & Neighbor Fire Exits

Hi All,

I recently started at a new facility and we are planning to add SQF for our next audit, however one issue keeps concerning me in particular regarding the food defense plan:

We have a fenced yard behind our facility for ingredient & product storage (sealed tanks and drums). However, the yard runs right up to the neighbors manufacturing plant, where we use the neighbors wall as our far wall for the yard

However at some point, the neighbor had an issue with the fire dept. and lack of fire doors and ended up building a fire exit through their wall and into our yard. So if there were a fire, their employees would exit into our yard. Unfortunately, this means that we have a back entrance into our yard, and someone could theoretically enter our yard through this backdoor.

We have a camera on their fire exit (is this sufficient?) and we can implement training for what to do if someone comes through the door. We have considered installing an fence, but the neighbor obviously opposes any plan to restrict their fire exit (not to mention our potential shared liability if the fence ends up contributing to any deaths in the event of a fire). 

If anyone has some thoughts on how to address this during a SQF audit (or even FSMA), please let me know. This has been a real head scratcher. 

So, in effect anyone can come thru that door and exit from their location to your :"fenced" in location.

Therefore, good for the other company, bad for your company's food defense, as the door negates your line of line of defense and creates a safety/liability issue for your company.

Either this is a common wall or their wall - your use of the wall creates an issue.

You really need to get with the local fire marshal and your own insurance company - as the other company is creating a big food defense issue for you - by using their wall to breach your property.

Sticky indeed - but without some changes your company get a major dose of liability.

What do you think about adding an audible alarm and camera to to the door and documenting/training how to respond during an alarm?

 However, the yard runs right up to the neighbors manufacturing plant, where we use the neighbors wall as our far wall for the yard

 

However at some point, the neighbor had an issue with the fire dept. and lack of fire doors and ended up building a fire exit through their wall and into our yard.

 

So where's the property line? I imagine you don't "own" the space all the way up to their wall. So you're just using their building as part of your fenced area.

Ultimately, that means that your lack of investment in fencing to enclose your property provides the opportunity for intrusion from the neighbor because you decided to use their building as fence rather than keep your own property fenced.

Otherwise, if they built a door onto your property, their fire issue is not your problem and you could in theory say it would be trespassing for them to use the door, and your alarms etc. may be an inexpensive but non ideal situation.

You have a surveying issue here, not just food safety issue. Their door, unless you own their building too, cannot open directly onto your property unless they had one hell of a lawyer that got them a ridiculous variance. in 25 years in the building industry I've never seen a variance for less than a 10 foot setback from a property line in an industrial park. Whoever granted that was probably driving a new Corvette the next day!

We are in an industrial urban area, so it adds an extra layer of complexity. The property is riddled with easements since it was built in the 60s. A train track built in the 70s took out a road and forced businesses in the area to get "creative". I see a lot of shared yards in the area, with trucks having to cut through other yards to get to their destination. I'm working on obtaining a property map, but I'm not sure if a formal survey has been done.

It looks like there is an easement which let's us use the neighbor's wall, and the neighbor has an easement for the area around his fire door to an alley way (blocked by a fence, of course). Apparently the fire marshall was happy he put in a fire door with no regards for the rest of the escape plan. 

I guess I missed the you own the fence around your yard part. Simple (not cheap) fix is to install a fence 10' away from their building and completely enclose your yard with fence. It gives them an open, albeit too close to their building, escape from their fire door hopefully to safety and eliminates unobstructed access to your property. You might offer to install surveillance that covers the area beyond the new fence if they're concerned about the security of their property.

Zoning commissions / boards rarely contact police, utilities or fire services to ask if it's a good idea to grant some requests.