Lack of school inspections isn’t new

FRISCO - Fire officials across Colorado weren’t surprised when a recent audit found that state officials were failing to inspect public schools as required by law. They’d been warning lawmakers and anyone else who would listen for years.

Although no students are believed to have been hurt as a result of the lack of inspections, fire chiefs say it’s only a matter of time — unless the state decides to act.

“I haven’t seen a state inspector in 20 years,” Deputy Lake Dillon Fire Chief Jeff Berino, who is responsible for schools in Frisco and Silverthorne, complained recently.

According to records obtained by The Associated Press under the Colorado Open Records Act, frustrated local fire officials compiled a report for lawmakers in 2004 citing fires that got out of hand, school roofs that collapsed, and an elementary school where exposed electrical wiring was found the day before it was scheduled to open. Fortunately, no one was injured, they said.

Still, lawmakers refused to give them the authority they wanted to do their own comprehensive inspections.

State officials say they are required by law to conduct about 150 inspections a year on new and remodeled schools. As many as eight inspections are required at each facility as construction proceeds. Existing facilities are presumed to have met the fire codes at the time they were built and are subject to inspections only during renovation.

The Colorado State Fire Chiefs Association says it has been trying for years to transfer responsibility for inspections from the state Oil and Public Safety Division in the Department of Labor to either local officials or the Fire Safety Division in the Department of Public Safety. But they were rebuffed, caught in a turf war between the state and local school boards.

The Department of Labor, meanwhile, acknowledged it didn’t have enough inspectors, but still insisted on retaining control.

In an exchange of e-mails in 2004 with other fire chiefs, Berino said there were no state inspections during construction of Summit High School in Summit County for 850 students. Two years after the building was occupied, there was no certificate of occupancy issued by the state inspector, he wrote.

After 20 years, a state inspector this week visited Summit Middle School, Frisco Elementary and Summit High Schools, the Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue Department reported.

In compiling complaints from fellow fire officials, Berino noted in another e-mail that “school construction officials are well versed in code requirements and often seek to ignore them and the potential consequences.”

To back up their claims, fire officials compiled a list of problems that included fires, structural collapses and dangerous construction practices. Among them:

- At Federal Heights Elementary School, a 1984 fire investigation revealed that fire stopping and draft stopping required by code was absent in the roof and ceiling assembly. The fire spread unchecked within minutes, contributing to total loss of the building. No one was hurt.

- In 1993, snow caused a partial roof collapse at the Granby Elementary School due to improper design. Superintendent Robb Rankin, principal at the time, said students were on Christmas vacation when snow slid off the gym and buckled a roof. Rankin said he has never seen a state inspector at a school construction site in his district.

- In 1979, fire officials canceled opening day at Frisco Elementary School when they found exposed electrical outlets and blocked exits.

- In West Adams County, the situation got so bad that in 1993, the county Fire Protection District got a court order allowing it to conduct fire inspections in Adams County School District 12, according to a copy of the ruling included in the Summit County records.