Indiana’s fire regulations are on par with those in most states, but they aren’t as tough as they could be.

The cause of the inferno that struck the Cosmopolitan on the Canal apartment project last week remains under investigation, so there’s no way to tell whether stricter fire codes could have prevented or slowed the fire.

But in San Jose, Calif., the City Council in 2002 adopted some of the most stringent fire safety rules in the nation for large construction projects after a massive blaze destroyed a large shopping center under construction and 34 nearby apartments.

The rules required developers of wood-frame structures larger than 350,000 square feet to install fire-protection barriers as builders progress through a project. In Indiana, the rules simply state they must be in place upon a project’s completion.

Similarly, there are no specifics in Indiana on when drywall — which acts as a fire retardant — should be installed in projects here. In San Jose, builders are expected to hang drywall as soon as they can rather than leaving framing exposed.

Builders in San Jose also are required to stagger their projects so that fewer units are in the framing stage at the same time. Here, no such rule applies.

Also, after-hours guards to keep an eye on sites are mandated in San Jose, but not in Indiana.

Despite these differences, Indiana’s director of fire and building code enforcement, Shelly Wakefield, said the state’s standards are “pretty tough.”

“I think we’re comparable to most states,” she said. “They’re sufficient. How this (Cosmopolitan) fire happened, I have no idea, but our codes are good codes.”

Reggie Wade, a city inspector who had inspected the Cosmopolitan 27 times in the past 11 months, said the development had a two-hour fire wall in place between the section of the project that was near completion and the remaining sections in the earlier phase of construction.

Wade said such a wall is standard for a project of the Cosmopolitan’s size, and he said the developer did take some extra precautions.

The main portion of the complex that was nearing completion included fire barriers between levels, even though a sprinkler system was going to be installed.

“They had smoke barriers in the attics, between the units, and because it’s a fully sprinkled building, they wouldn’t have to do that,” Wade said. “They went above and beyond the standard.”

Wade said that in his many visits to the site, he found no reason to believe there were any fire hazards. Officials with the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, who inspected the site twice, said they found no fire hazards.

Indiana, like many states, adopts its building codes from the International Code Council, a Washington, D.C.-based group that updates its standards every three years.

Unlike some states, such as neighboring Illinois and Michigan, Indiana applies one set of codes statewide, and individual municipalities do not develop their own codes.

Wakefield said most major code changes are handled on the national level and then adopted by states.

Bruce Johnson, a spokesman with the code council, said that in recent years, codes have become tougher — particularly for high-rise buildings after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Wakefield said building codes can always be strengthened but said safety concerns must be weighed against the cost to the developer.

“The codes are a minimum standard, and a balance has to be struck,” she said. “You have to look at what’s going to keep people safe once the building is complete, but they have to balance that with the economic impact of what it’s going to cost that person to build it or to pay the rent to live there. It is a delicate balance, but it does work.”