LOUISVILLE, Ky. — (WHAS11)-More than 100,000 students walk into Jefferson County Public Schools every day, while parents put their faith in the buildings, assuming the spaces are safe and up to code. But so far this year, a dozen JCPS schools have failed fire inspections, totaling almost 150 violations.
"As soon as we find one violation, that is a violation and means the school has failed its inspection," Fire Marshal and State Inspector Mike Allendorf said.
Some violations were seemingly simple, like failing to complete required fire drills.
Brandeis Elementary, The Academy at Shawnee and Breckinridge Franklin Elementary all missed the mark, according to their fire inspections from early 2019.
"We have those drills because we want to have that muscle memory into the children that when the drill goes, alarm goes off, we drill them, evacuate, go out to your safe meeting place," Allendorf said.
Other violations were more serious, according to Allendorf, like emergency lighting that "is not in working order" and a "sinkhole near egress path for evacuation" at the Academy at Shawnee.
"That's high on my priority list as far as, if it's life-safety, drills, alarm system, blocked exit. Those are probably my top four pet peeves if you will," Allendorf said.
Atkinson Elementary School failed its 2018 inspection and its 2019 inspection. In 2018, an "active construction project" was underway without a permit. One year later, the school had ten more violations, including multiple missing pieces from the sprinkler system and boilers without current inspections.
Byck Elementary School failed its May 2019 inspection with eleven violations.
During Butler High School's March 2019 inspection, the inspector cited five violations, describing one room were "chemicals" were "stored haphazardly."
Fourteen violations gave Bloom Elementary a "failing" grade, during its May inspection. Blocked exits in the gym, unapproved extensive cords and improper storage of combustible material were all described by the inspector.
Allendorf said, "It may take a month, a year or never we just don't know. But its gambling, its what they say--gambling with fire."
Every JCPS building is inspected once a year by a Kentucky State Fire Marshal. If a school fails the inspection, the inspector returns 30 days later to "re-inspect." After that, a school can be fined every two weeks that they fail to make corrections.
During a May 2019 fire inspection at Atherton High School, Inspector Allendorf noted 17 violations, including blocked fire extinguishers and ceiling tiles described as "missing, buckling and hanging ready to fall."
The Binet School was written up for four violations at the end of the last year's school year. The June 2019 inspection report details the use of "unapproved adapters," "unapproved extension cords" and "extension cords used as a substitute for permanent wiring" in multiple classrooms.
"Electrical is still top three for a leading cause of fire in residential and commercial buildings. So we want to prevent those types of issues from happening," Allendorf explained.
Camp Taylor Elementary School, Ahrens School Education Resource Center and Gilmore Lane Elementary also failed inspections in early 2019.
But one school stood out among the rest--The Academy at Shawnee, where a failed May inspection report details 38 violations.
"That's probably more than others--top one percent maybe," Allendorf said.
A seven-page summary lays the inspections out, detailing improper storage of combustible waste, exposed wiring, expired fire extinguishers, boilers without current inspections, missing ceiling tiles and a sinkhole near the evacuation path--just to name a few.
When we reached out to JCPS about the failed inspections, a spokesperson sent the following statement:
“All of our schools are inspected each year by a Kentucky State Fire Marshal and any findings are addressed, reviewed with staff and quickly resolved. The location inspection for the Academy @ Shawnee was completed back in May and reported issues were resolved shortly thereafter.”
Inspector Allendorf told the WHAS11 FOCUS Team, typically JCPS staff is good at maintaining their old buildings.
"Any time we go in to conduct a fire inspection there is that behind you, that pressure to say, 'Hey is there something I missed?' Does it keep you up at night sometimes? Oh yeah," he said.
That's why, he said, he doesn't let any violation go undetected.
"You're going to get detention for doing something silly and our code enforcement is our detention towards the schools," Allendorf said.
The next round of inspections will be in November when Allendorf said he will be checking to ensure all of those spring violations have been corrected.
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