City of Hayward Celebrates Building Safety Month

(HAYWARD, CA) – Building safety is important no matter where you live. It’s even more essential when your city shares a name with one of the country’s most volatile earthquake faults. To that end, the City of Hayward will be conducting a public awareness campaign throughout the month of May to celebrate National Building Safety Month. The highlight of the effort will be Building Safety Awareness Day at City Hall on May 18.

The theme of this year’s campaign is “Resilient Communities Start with Building Codes.” Each week of May spotlights a specific area of building safety in an effort to help individuals, families and businesses understand what it takes to create safe, resilient, sustainable structures where we live, work and play.

Weekly themes during Building Safety Month are: May 4-10, “Don’t Get Burned–Build to Code;” May 11-17, “Bounce Back Faster from Disaster–Build to Code;” May 18-24, “Water Safe, Water Smart–Build to Code;” and May 25-31 “$ave Energy–Build to Code.

“Building codes are critical to public safety,” said Stacey Bristow, the City of Hayward’s Deputy Director of Development Services. “In Hayward, it’s particularly important given our vulnerability to earthquakes. We want people to understand how important it is to build to code, but more important, we want contractors, plumbers, roofers, electricians and everyone else to know that we are here to work with them.”

All communities need building codes to protect their citizens from disasters like fires, weather-related events and structural collapse. Model building codes are society's best way of protecting homes, offices, schools, manufacturing facilities, stores and entertainment venues. Code officials work day in and day out to keep the public safe.

To support and raise awareness of the hard work carried out by code officials, Building Safety Month is recognized and promoted each year by the President of the United States, governors, mayors, county executives and other government officials and construction industry professionals.

To learn more about how to protect your family, property and community, join the City of Hayward
Development Services, Public Works, Utilities & Environmental Services and Fire Departments for Building Safety
Awareness Day on May 18th from 11:00 a.m.—1:00 p.m. at Hayward City Hall, 777 B Street, Hayward.