Summit HS fire safety concerns aired before board

(Update: School district info on fire safety system repairs, testing)

A Bend-La Pine Schools inspector brought forward some concerns over Summit High School’s fire safety systems at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, but a district official said the issues already were being addressed.

Bruce Card is the inspector who wrote a report detailing some big issues regarding fire alarm notification devices.

Those are things like horns and strobe lights he said have either been covered up, rendered useless or not inspected at all.

The report also includes information about faulty fire and smoke dampers in the school’s HVAC systems. Those dampers are in place to stop the spread of fire and smoke, but about 70 percent of the motors that propel them are not working.

Card claims the issue was swept under the rug by his superiors after he filed the report, and he wants to make sure these problems are fixed.

The school district said it’s aware of the issues and is working to make sure that everything is in proper working order.

“It was basically told to me that the system is so redundant that a lot of these things don’t have to be in place, and that they were testing to what was required of them,” Card said.

Mike Tiller, the school district’s director of facilities, told the board and audience Tuesday night he district is working to address these issues.

“We’re not dismissing or ignoring these issues,” TIller said. “When all of this came to light in the media, we were working on corrective items and actions.”

Tiller said fire officials believe students and staff are safe from any fire threat.

But because of the report, the school district ran extra system and alarm tests last summer.

The school district says crews are scheduled to repair the “impaired” dampers at Summit High and it has hired a contractor to test fire alarm systems.

Spokeswoman Julianne Repman said Wednesday they have been unable to find a contractor who performs fire/smoke damper testing, but they are still looking for one.

Fire code allows for the school to fix these issues within one year of Card’s report being filed.

Card said he hopes that this will bring about some change and improve the way fire systems are inspected in the school district.