Despite repeated request for an accounting of the fire and explosion at New Rochelle High School last month, there have been no answers. Tonight, I intend to raise a series of questions to the board in the hope the public might get a better understanding of the events of June 7th and what has followed.
In an email last week, I sent the following list of questions with a note:
If any of these questions require further investigation before responding, I would ask that the board indicate which questions require further investigation and when I can expect to have an answer, in writing, per your policy. If the district intends to invoke some claim of confidentiality or an exception under the Open Meeting Law in responding to a particular question I would like a citation of the specific statute or exception pertaining to a particular question. I would then like to revisit this issue at the next board meeting.
1. Con Edison has stated that the cause of the June 7 fire incident was faulty electrical equipment owned by the school district, does the district dispute Con Ed’s statement?
2. If the district is not disputing that the district’s equipment failed, given the similar electrical issues in January, was the electrical vault that caught fire in June inspected after the January incident?
3. What is the district spending each day, on average, to have an electrical generator installed at NRHS, including the costs related to installing and maintaining the equipment, fuel to run the generator and any related costs?
4. What is your current estimate of when you will no longer need the generator?
5. What electrical equipment, if any, is designated to be kept off or used on a limited basis to reduce demand on the generator?
6. Has the district been informed or otherwise determined the specific cause of the explosion at the high school on June 7?
7. In the past 5 years, there have been no major fire incidents at any schools in the district except New Rochelle High School where there have been 4, this at a school that many years ago burned to the ground. The four fires have a common element. There were two incidents of lightening strikes on improperly ground lightening rods that caused major structural damage. There were two incidents of electrical feeder cables in electrical vaults. Beyond the annual fire inspection, have any additional steps been taken to evaluate the electrical system in the building, to evaluate personnel or contractors responsible for performing electrical work in the building or anything else?
8. New Rochelle Fire Chief Lou DiMeglio told reporters on scene that the fire department was notified of smoke coming from the manhole by a phone call from a civilian. Upon arriving, the Fire Department took CO readings of 1,500 ppm, the maximum safe level is 70 ppm. Does the building have CO detectors and, if so, why did they not trigger an alarm to the fire department?
9. Students were evacuated around 10 am then around 11 am were brought back into the building with an active fire scene, on what basis was this decision made, who made it and why?
10. About 15 minutes later, there was an explosion and a massive jet of fire shot up through the manhole above the electrical vault. Knowing this now, is the decision to bring the students back into the building being re-evaluated?
11. The building level emergency safety plan contains an off-site evacuation/sheltering plan. Why was this plan not activated on June 7? Given the explosion that took place shortly after bringing students back into the building, should the evacuation/sheltering plan been activated?
12. Given the legal requirement to hold evacuation/sheltering drills, was the failure to activate the plan a missed opportunity to test and evaluate your plan?
13. Why was there no emergency lighting in the Whitney auditorium after the explosion and loss of power to the building?
14. Four minutes after the explosion, about 2 dozens students were able to walk through an active fire scene to within 10-15 feet of the electrical vault and open manhole. Do you consider this to be a concern? How did this happen? What changed are you considering to address this issue?
15. Has the board request or has the administration provided any sort of after-action report including “lessons learned” and “proposed changes” to the safety plan?
16. In the context of the Department of Justice Inquiry into potential ADA violations in New Rochelle schools, how many students were identified as mobility impaired, permanently or temporarily, during the 2011-12 and 2012-13?
UPDATE: The answer was “no“.
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