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Originally Posted by FrankenMauser
I have never lived anywhere that didn't require all adopted standards to be available to the public for free, at least in some limited form.
For example: The last city I lived in, in Utah, required that one copy of all city ordinances and adopted code always be available for viewing in the planning office, and another copy had to be available in the library. You might have to wait for 3 hours, to get your turn at the book, but it was available.
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Well, sure -- but the guy who is going to have the fire codes is the fire marshal, and he's the one who's going to cite you if you have too much explosive stored in your garage or basement. So walking in and asking him to see the NFPA standards on storing explosives is probably not the best way to fly under the radar.
You could, of course, just ask to see the NFPA standards. Ten years ago, the full set took up twelve or fifteen LARGE 3-ring binders and filled two or three shelves in a standard, 42-inch wide office bookcase. I'm sure they occupy even more space now. An ordinary bloke walking in off the street wouldn't know where to begin looking, and I've never yet encountered a code official who would let a member of the general public "behind the counter" to just poke around at random through the code library.
And, short of asking the very guy you DON'T want to know you have the stuff, I don't know how you can find out which of the hundreds of NFPA standards have actually been adopted as enforceable codes in your jurisdiction.
For the record, I am licensed as a building official and I have worked in municipal code offices. If someone wants to see the code that covers ___, we'd dig out the code that addresses ___ and let them read it while standing at the counter. If they need a copy of one or two pages, we'd copy it for them. If they want the whole thing -- sorry, it's a copyrighted document, here's the address where you can contact the NFPA and buy your very own book.