By Billy Davis

The fire marshal for the Batesville Fire Department is visiting businesses and churches beginning this month as the city begins a new round of annual inspections.

Churches and restaurants are inspected annually due to their crowd capacity, and other businesses are inspected every other year in Batesville.

“This is the year everybody gets a visit,” said BFD fire marshal Brett Childs.

The fire department wrote 11 tickets in 2010 for fire code violations, including a $250 fine to Pizza Hut when it failed two inspections.

The inspectors look for lighted exit signs and working fire extinguishers, among other requirements.

Childs and BFD training officer Cowles Horton divide the city into four squares, using Highways 51 and 6 as dividing lines.

The first inspections will begin north of Highway 6 and east of Highway 51, an area that stretches from the Factory Stores of Batesville to the Kangaroo convenience store at the highway intersection.

Childs said the inspections were set to begin this week but got postponed by the snowfall.

The City of Batesville’s fire code ordinance follows the International Fire Code, an industry standard for safety rules.

For questions about the inspections, call 563-6612.