|
Auditors
Report Reveals Abysmal Enforcement of Fire
and Life Safety in Schools by State Agency
Fire Chiefs Continue to
Express Concerns
CENTENNIAL,
June 13, 2007 – For years the Colorado State
Fire Chiefs’ Association (CSFCA) has
repeatedly sounded the alarm that there was
little or no enforcement of building and
life safety codes in the construction or
remodel of public schools in Colorado by the
State Division of Oil and Public Safety.
According to CSFCA President Douglas
Forsman, “We have long maintained that this
lax oversight was putting our children at
risk,” adding, “it is only by luck and
chance that we haven’t lost a child due to a
fire or structural collapse in a school.”
Thus, the report released Monday by the
State Auditor’s Office, which found the
Division’s record of enforcement nothing
short of abysmal, comes as no surprise to
the fire chiefs. Since publication of its
“Five Point Plan for a Fire Safe Colorado”
in 1997, the CSFCA has sought to transfer
this function from the Division of Oil and
Public Safety to the Division of Fire Safety
in the Department of Public Safety.
The fire chiefs believe the enforcement of
building and fire codes in public schools is
a life safety function, best regulated by an
office whose mission is life safety. The
CSFCA has also long maintained that the
authority to conduct plan reviews and
inspections of public schools should be
delegated to local authorities that have
qualified building and fire inspectors. “It
is the local fire department that will be
called when the school is on fire,” says
Chief Forsman, “and we will be the ones held
to answer if a child loses his or her life.
It only makes sense that we should be the
ones ensuring that the schools in our
jurisdictions are safe.” According to
Forsman, “The state should be involved only
in adopting the codes and standards, and
enforcing them in areas of the state where
there are no qualified local inspectors.”
The CSFCA made two recent attempts in the
legislature to address this issue, but our
concerns were largely ignored.
In 2005, the CSFCA sought to transfer all of
the public safety programs, which included
school safety, boiler inspections, carnivals
and amusement parks, and explosives from the
Department of Labor and Employment to the
Department of Public Safety. A bill
(SB05-236) sponsored by Senator Tom Wiens
and then-Representative Tom Plant, among
others, to do this ran into significant
opposition from the Division of Oil and
Public Safety and its constituents. While
the emphasis was on the school safety
program, it was felt that all of the public
safety programs belonged in a public safety
agency and the resources to do the job
effectively were scattered between the
programs.
Despite
overwhelming evidence that the Division was
doing little to fulfill its statutory duties
with respect to schools, the bill was killed
in its first committee hearing following
testimony from the Division Director, Dick
Piper, that all required inspections were
getting done and no changes were needed.
The list of issues cited by the fire chiefs
was lengthy, and mirrors those found by the
State Auditor’s Office. It included examples
of:
·
Certificates of Occupancy issued before
construction was complete and fire and life
safety systems were operational
·
Exit doors that were hung backwards, meaning
they could trap students inside in the event
of fire
·
Required fire-rated doors not installed, or
installed incorrectly
·
Fire detection and alarm systems
inadequately designed or inadequately
installed
·
Unprotected penetrations in fire walls,
which would allow a means for rapid fire
spread
The list went on, but of significant concern
were the countless examples of Certificates
of Occupancy being issued by the Division
without a single inspection performed by
state or local officials. The practice was
to allow the contractor to hire their own
inspectors, which is tantamount to allowing
the “fox to guard the henhouse.”
Making matters worse, the years of neglect
by the Division have created the situation
where we now have countless public school
buildings in the state that were not built
to code, and there is little opportunity to
correct problems once a Certificate of
Occupancy is issued.
During the 2006 legislative session, the
CSFCA supported by groups representing fire
marshals and building officials, renewed its
efforts to pass legislation to correct this
problem. “In order to increase our
likelihood of success,” relates Forsman,
“this time we narrowed our focus
specifically on the issue of school safety.”
House Bill 06-1158 by then-Representative
Paul Weissmann and Senator Ron Tupa sought
to transfer the school safety program from
the Division of Oil and Public Safety to the
Division of Fire Safety and allow delegation
of enforcement to local officials.
Like its predecessor bill, HB06-1158 ran
into obstacles from the beginning, when it
was assigned to three different committees
in the House, presumably on the belief that
it would not make it through all three. When
it did, the Division was willing to come to
the table and concede there were issues, but
Director Piper blamed it on the lack of
resources to do the job. While the CSFCA
agrees the resources were insufficient, it
suggested that the resources were available
within state government, particularly if
certain enforcement activities were to be
delegated to local authorities. The CSFCA
also maintained that the primary problem was
cultural – that the primary mission of the
Department of Labor and Employment was not
public safety – and thus the emphasis was
not directed towards this.
However, when the CSFCA was told that
then-Governor Owens would not sign a bill
that transferred the entire school safety
program and allowed for delegation, it was
faced with the decision to agree to a
compromise or lose the bill entirely.
The compromise position was that the program
would remain the responsibility of the
Division of Oil and Public Safety, but the
authority for the enforcement of fire codes
would be given to the Division of Fire
Safety. The delegation to local authorities
was left to the individual school districts
to decide. They could have either the state
perform the function or their local building
and fire officials. But, if they opted for
state oversight, the proposal would require
the Division of Oil and Public Safety to
refer plans to local fire departments for
fire safety review and comment.
According to Forsman, “It would be a better
situation than existed at the time, so we
agreed to the compromise.” HB06-1558 was
subsequently enacted into law with an
effective date of July 1, 2006. However,
since enactment of the Bill, very little has
been done to actually implement its
provisions. The Bill requires the Division
of Oil and Public Safety to do rule-making
to implement it, and nearly a year later, we
are still waiting for this to occur.
While the report of the State Auditor
confirms what the CSFCA has been saying all
along, “The real issue,” according to
Forsman, “is that problems still exist, and
little is still being done to address them.”
He suggests that, “It is time that we
adequately resource this program and turn it
over to people whose primary mission is
public safety.”
Chief Forsman adds that, while the record of
the Division of Oil and Public Safety speaks
for itself, there are several jurisdictions
in the state, including his (Union Colony
Fire Rescue Authority in Greeley), “That
enjoy a very good relationship with their
school district and they work together to
resolve fire and life safety issues at the
local level.”
-- End -- |
