June 23, 2023
In a social media post yesterday, local watchdog group “Pocatello for Accountable Government Entities” raised questions regarding the discrepancy between SD 25’s claim that the fire prevention system at Highland High School was “FULLY FUNCTIONAL” when the fire broke out, and the State Fire Marshal’s report that “the fire alarm system was discovered to be inoperative.” The post reads:
Rather than accept any responsibility for the inoperable fire alarm system and for not addressing at least two of the cited violations contained within the failed 11/28/22 fire inspection (Nearly 3 months passed with no documented servicing of the system – with only one invoice for servicing a drop-down door on 02/27/23), ” . . . School District 25 maintains the system was FULLY FUNCTIONAL at the time of the blaze.”
Question: If the alarm system was fully functional, why would the State Fire Marshall have stated “The fire alarm system was discovered to be inoperative, allowing the fire to rapidly grow from incipient stage to full development before the fire department was notified”?
The School District makes the argument “no additional sprinkler or fire alarm zones throughout the school were activated because the flames or heat of the fire did not impact those areas.” With this statement, are we then to infer that the school’s fire alarm system lacks any smoke detection? Early detection, after all, is essential to any fire alarm system.
Does this sound even remotely reasonable to you?
Finally, based on additional District statements, the public learned that apparently, the $6M+ taxpayers pay in our extra School Plant Facilities levy is insufficient to afford a $105 service call (+labor/parts) to address the fire alarm panel “trouble code” or to address the non-fire-rated stage curtains (a “multi-year repeat” offense) which begs the question how do CIP projects like new carpeting and parking lots rank higher than fire safety issues?
Seriously Pocatello . . . what is it going to take?
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