A new inventory of fire alarms at all 258 of Hawaii’s regular public schools plus six public charter schools has found 15 schools’ fire alarm systems to be inoperable, and replacements for most will take three to 10 months, according to state Department of Education officials.

Ten additional schools are being “actively worked on” because while their fire alarms still work, they’ve been flagged by school principals or state legislators as needing alarm replacements soon, DOE Deputy Superintendent Curt Otaguro said. A rough cost estimate for a new system is $2 million per school, he said.

“Ninety-four percent of the schools’ (fire alarm systems) are operational as we speak, but the 15 (schools) that are not — as we all know, it’s unacceptable at 5.7%,” Otaguro said as he presented the report to a March 7 meeting of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee of the state Board of Education.

Otaguro said state schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi has emphasized to him and Audrey Hidano, interim assistant superintendent in the DOE Office of Facilities and Operations, that getting all schools’ fire alarms in working order “is his top priority. No excuses. No time-urgent matter more than this.”

Keeping Hawaii public school fire alarms operating, and all campuses compliant with fire department inspections, have been perennial challenges for the massive DOE stretching back into the 1980s. Fire safety concerns have come to the fore again in the wake of the Maui wildfires, especially with three public schools operating along a single road just above the Lahaina burn zone, and worries expressed by community members about fire safety and evacuation routes for those schools.

The DOE inventory, conducted over recent months, placed the schools into four priority categories, indicating the urgency of repairs or replacement, based on such factors as the age of the fire alarm system, condition and availability of replacement parts.

The DOE memo on the inventory, including a list of all of the schools, can be viewed at 808ne.ws/3TClCEQ.

None of the three schools open above Lahaina was among the 15 schools in the most urgent “priority 1” category with inoperable fire alarm systems (see accompanying list). Lahaina Intermediate was in “priority 2,” Lahainaluna High was in “priority 3” and Princess Nahi‘ena‘ena Elementary was in “priority 4.”

The 15 schools where fire alarms are inoperable are required to be under a “fire watch plan,” Otaguro said.

While each plan is unique to the school, Otaguro said Thursday in response to follow-up questions, standard elements include designation of trained personnel “who continuously patrol the affected area(s),” are trained to use a fire extinguisher and always have one accessible; capability to communicate with building occupants and the fire department in case of fire or other emergencies; and maintenance of a record of the fire watch for inspection by the respective fire department.

The DOE’s Safety, Security and Emergency Preparedness Branch writes fire-watch plan request letters and submits them to the county fire departments’ fire chiefs, Otaguro said.

Otaguro, who oversees operations aspects of the DOE, said the inventory was done as a step toward building a new approach in which preventive maintenance and centralized monitoring will be emphasized.

“We want to reverse this,” Otaguro said of the defunct fire alarms, “so that we have more proactive replacements, to prevent a fire watch, to prevent the (alarm system) failure.”

Among concerning findings from the DOE inventory was that some relatively new fire alarm systems are failing, and so were classified “priority 1” for repairs or replacement, while scores of other systems that are decades old are still operating, Otaguro said.

Inventory data shows that of the 15 schools with inoperable fire alarm systems, three have alarm systems that are only 4, 5 and 6 years old, at Kalaheo High, Solomon Elementary and Koko Head Elementary schools, respectively. In contrast, scores of other schools have alarm systems topping two or three decades in age that are still working.

“We need to do more analysis with our vendors as to why this is happening. It should not happen,” said Otaguro, who is a former state comptroller and former head of the state Department of Accounting and General Services.

The DOE inventory also found that the reasons that some fire alarm systems go down are varied and complex, Otaguro said. Schools near shoreline areas “are more susceptible to rust, corrosion and things like that, which impacts the wiring and as well as the equipment,” he told the committee. And at some schools isolated electrical issues are to blame, while at other schools the problem is broad, he said.

When a manufacturer stops making certain parts for a system, forcing the DOE to scramble to find alternative suppliers, and when a manufacturer discontinues making a certain alarm system, that complicates repairs and replacement, Otaguro said.

BOE Chair Warren Haruki, a member of the Finance and Infrastructure Committee, voiced concern that when a fire alarm is replaced, “we still tend to replace it with the old, traditional, conventional systems … not the ones that you can remotely monitor” to ensure their working status. “Only if we move to these addressable systems can we be proactive, and we may see that here’s a sensor or here’s a speaker or here’s a detector that is faulty. The other way requires human intervention.”

Otaguro responded that shifting to “one type of system that we can monitor, that is absolutely the focus.” Low-bid procurement in years past has produced a patchwork of varied, stand-alone alarm systems, he said. “So we need to take better control of our centralized procurement and issue a contract and put it out to bid for the entire system, or at least by island.”

Alarm repairs or replacements tend to stretch for months to years because each project is required to include scoping, design, permitting, procurement and award before construction, Otaguro said in a January memo to the committee.

A shortage of vendors doing the specialized work of fixing or replacing fire alarms also complicates and lengthens the work, he told the committee last week.

The DOE requested $10 million for fire alarms as part of a $35 million request for health- and safety-related projects, but Gov. Josh Green did not include it in his budget proposal to the Legislature, although lawmakers are continuing budget talks.

Otaguro said if the Legislature would appropriate $25 million annually for the next five years for school fire alarms, “that would tackle our more vulnerable systems.”

The department also is revisiting its fire watch plan, Otaguro told the committee. “While the plan is there, the oversight for that plan, and to make sure that we get the proper letters authorizing the schools to be on fire watch, is a hit or miss, frankly,” he told the committee, so a new process to “ensure that the Office of Facilities and Operations in safety and security (has) provided oversight” is being implemented.

The DOE inventory covered only six public charter schools because those are “conversion” campuses that originally were traditional public schools, Otaguro said. The DOE “does not control or manage charter schools on private property, but I hope each of the other charter school boards adopt similar procedures consistent with the state,” he said. There are 37 public charter schools across the state.

Ninety-one percent of DOE schools passed their overall fire inspections in the 2022-2023 school year, while the remainder failed. Fire inspections for this school year were set to be completed in January, and the results are expected to be presented at an upcoming school board meeting.

INOPERABLE SCHOOL FIRE ALARM SYSTEMS

A state Department of Education inventory of fire alarm systems at 258 regular public schools and six public charter schools found the systems inoperable at 15:

SCHOOL SYSTEM AGE ESTIMATED REPAIR

Heeia Elementary 28 July 1

Hilo Intermediate 21 N/A

Kahuku High/Intermediate 19 Jan. 1

Kainalu Elementary 39 Sept. 1

Kalaheo High 4 N/A

Kapalama Elementary 22 Sept. 1

Kaumualii Elementary 24 Oct. 1

Koko Head Elementary 6 N/A

Kuhio Elementary 19 Sept. 1

Laie Elementary 28 Sept. 1

Olomana School N/A N/A

Pearl City High 24 Oct. 1

Solomon Elementary 5 Aug. 1

Sunset Beach Elementary 33 Jan. 1

Source: State Department of Education