Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
District officials blame the years-long problems on old systems requiring a large number of repairs, a lack of staffing and a shortage of contractors.
By SARAH SCHWEITZER
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 28, 2000
TAMPA -- More than a third of Hillsborough County's public schools have deficient fire alarms, with problems ranging from broken smoke detectors to recurring system failures.
A review of school district inspection records by the St. Petersburg Times found that 70 of the district's 172 schools do not meet national fire alarm standards.
Many of the problems documented in the inspections are not new. A school district report assessing fire alarms two years ago flagged many of the same schools, saying the systems were in such poor condition that they should be replaced.
Last year, in response to new state regulations, the school district embarked on a more comprehensive review of fire alarm problems. Few of the problems highlighted in the inspections have been repaired.
As of last week:
At King High School in Tampa, the fire alarm panel -- which acts as the brain of the system -- was not triggering the alarm when the system was manually activated.
Alarm bells could not be heard in kindergarten classrooms at Mango Elementary School in Seffner or in the auditorium at Hillsborough High School in Tampa.
Manual levers used to trigger the alarm system were not working in a wing of Tomlin Middle School in Plant City.
"As a parent with a child in the school district, if my child was going to these schools where the alarm was poor or faulty, I would be concerned," said Bill Wade, a fire inspector and Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman.
School officials say the problems are borne of old, cantankerous systems requiring constant maintenance.
"It's like trying to hit a moving target with these old systems," said Jack Davis, assistant superintendent for operations.
Compounding the problem, school officials say, is a worker shortage. Staff technicians are overwhelmed, and outside contractors are scarce, they say.
"We're trying to play catch-up," said Henry Ballard, who oversees fire alarm repairs. "But there are a lot of changes that need to be made that should have been made years ago."
Fire alarms have been a chronic headache for school administrators. Recent maintenance logs show hundreds of requests for repairs, some submitted more than once.
Mango Elementary School Principal George Shaw repeatedly contacted maintenance about his school's alarm system this year. In October, he wrote: "We have been without a fire alarm since the middle of summer. THIS IS EXTREMELY URGENT!!!! THIS IS THE THIRD NOTICE AND STILL NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE."
Last month, problems persisted. "We tried a fire drill today, and still the FIRE ALARM WILL NOT WORK! THIS IS A HUGE SAFETY HAZARD," Shaw wrote.
The proper part has since been located and the system is functioning, Shaw says.
"We were still having fire alarms, supplemented with verbal warnings" during the time the system was malfunctioning, Shaw said. "But I was frustrated and wanted something done."
Not every school district is as backlogged as Hillsborough's. When Pasco County embarked on its own round of inspections to comply with new regulations, it directed its inspectors to repair problems along the way.
The result, said David Beals, crew chief of the district's electronic shop, is that all 50 of Pasco's schools have fire alarms that meet the standards of the National Fire Protection Association. The association's highly regarded fire and safety protocols are used throughout the country.
"We fix them as we inspect them," Beals said. "That's the whole purpose of doing it."
Pinellas County has not begun its round of inspections. It is seeking a private contractor to do the job.
The Hillsborough school district's heightened interest in fire alarm systems began two years ago, when it compiled a five-year plan aimed at fixing the biggest problems first. At that point, 31 schools had fire alarm systems in "poor condition," while some had systems classified as "inoperative," records show.
At many of these schools, repeated service requests were made in the 18 months before the report's completion in May 1998. At Edison Elementary, where the condition of the alarm system was described as poor, 25 repair requests were made between November 1996 and May 1998.
In all, 1,527 fire alarm repair requests were made by Hillsborough schools during the period.
The plan called for renovating or replacing alarm systems in poor or inoperative condition, but to date only four of the 31 systems have been overhauled. Eight other systems described as being in good or fair condition have been replaced or renovated.
Last year, in response to new state regulations, Hillsborough school officials hired FireMaster, a private fire alarm installer and maintenance company based in Santa Monica, Calif., to look at each system and ensure that they all met the National Fire Protection Association standards.
The company, which has been paid $173,222 to date, was hired because staff technicians were not certified to do the inspections, said Glen Lathers, the district's safety manager.
The inspections turned up dozens of deficiencies, many of which center on faulty fire alarm components in particular classrooms or school wings.
At Brooker Elementary School, for example, inspectors found the kitchen had a bent and rusty heat detector and a faulty horn-strobe, a device with a light used to alert the hearing-impaired of a fire.
At Citrus Park Elementary, several areas in the school, including the kindergarten cluster, had bad pull stations, devices that allow the fire alarm to be activated manually.
At Egypt Lake Elementary School, smoke detectors in portable classrooms and bells in the bathrooms were not working.
But other deficiencies found by inspectors were more systemic, affecting an entire alarm system. At Brandon High School, for example, inspectors noted that alarms went off for no reason. The decibel levels of alarms at Claywell Elementary School and Middleton Middle School, inspectors noted, were very low. The control panel at Cork Elementary School was not working. At Foster Elementary School, inspectors described the system as simply "non-functional."
School officials say the most dire problems highlighted in the inspections by FireMaster have been repaired, although a raft of problems remains.
After an inquiry by the Times last week, school officials said three contractors had been tapped to repair all deficient fire alarms. The School Board must approve the hiring.
"The problem is the volume of repairs and the staff we have to do it," said Ballard, who oversees fire alarm repairs for the district.
Moreover, school officials note that as a precaution, all schools that do not meet the National Fire Protection Association's standards have developed other means of notifying students and teachers of a fire, such as intercoms, walkie-talkies or runners.
"If a system is not functional for some reason, we have the alternate evacuation plans," said Gwen Wamsly, director of risk management for the district. "We're very much on top of this."
Some fire experts say the district's delay in repairing fire alarm problems is risky because even limited deficiencies, such as a faulty smoke detector in one room, can pose dangers.
"There's a reason that a horn-strobe was specified in a particular room," said Bradd Shipp, executive director of the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association. "If it was possible to not have it there, it wouldn't be there."
Wade, the Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman, said waiting on repairs, even for minor problems, should not be an option. "I understand that the school has many priorities, but if the safety of the children is the top priority, then maintaining these systems must also be a priority."
Some critics say no fire alarm system will be foolproof until independent inspectors are used. Now, the school district inspects itself, a privilege no private business is allowed.
"It's like letting the fox watch the henhouse," said John Michael, a fire protection specialist with the state fire marshal's office.
Hillsborough school officials disagree, saying the inspections are fair. "They are conducted by our safety office, so that to me lends objectivity to the process," said Davis, the assistant superintendent.
The Legislature in 1998 gave local fire officials authority to inspect fire alarms in schools, but Tampa and Hillsborough fire authorities have not done so to date, citing inspector shortages.
For Mike Donohue, principal of Erwin Technical Center, the only process that matters is the one that will permanently repair his school's fire alarm panel.
The panel, installed 20 years ago, has been failing all year, sometimes emitting loud beeps that forced school officials to turn the system off. Technicians thought batteries were the problem, but the beeping continued, even with fresh batteries.
Workers recently made a temporary repair and the system no longer beeps, leaving Donohue to cross his fingers and hope for the best.
"We've had a heck of a time with this for a long time," Donohue said.