Doug,
As a Fire Prevention guy, I think that you guys would have the say what the hazards would be. The Fire Prevention people in my state have a lot of power. I would ask the people who operate this business, to either provide you with an engineers OK to work here or else follow all of the rules and Regs of a hazard zone. If they can't get an engineer to sign off, the I think you would have every right to shut them down. Do you have a state board of fire prevention? If so , why not ask them their opinion? In my state (NJ) the fire prevention people have the right to shut down business, if there is a hazard. The construction people do not. We are not allowed back into a building once there is a Certificate of Occupency.
