News

Nursing homes, day cares miss fire code deadline

Brian Messenger
Published: January 17, 2008

Several day care centers, nursing homes and hotels in town are in violation of state fire codes for failing to install carbon monoxide detectors before a state-mandated deadline.

All six of Andover's public schools that have day care operations were in violation of the fire code until last Friday.

Under a statute known as Nicole's Law, all day care facilities in Massachusetts with attached garages or fossil fuel-burning equipment were required to have working carbon monoxide detectors installed by Jan. 1.

Andover's Shawsheen School for kindergarten to grade two, and its five elementary schools | Bancroft, Sanborn, South, West and High Plain | house morning day care operations run out of the buildings' cafeterias. The detectors were installed by the end of last week, said town Plant & Facilities Director Joe Piantedosi.

"Having that type of device installed has saved lives," said Piantedosi. "We do take that very seriously. Meeting deadlines is something that's important on my end. It's not something that I'm proud of."

Nicole's Law, passed in November 2005, is named after 7-year-old Nicole Garofalo of Plymouth, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning earlier that year after a snowdrift blocked a boiler vent at her family's home.

"It is truly a silent killer," said fire Lt. Todd Pomerleau of the odorless and colorless gas.

Pomerleau, the department's fire prevention officer, and Andover fire Chief Michael Mansfield said their department conducted an aggressive campaign throughout 2007 to inform and assist all building owners in town affected by Nicole's Law.

Also required to have working detectors by Jan. 1 were hotels and nursing homes. Seven hotels, four nursing homes and five private day care facilities in town were cited by the Fire Department for not meeting the deadline.

Written notices of violation were issued recently to all noncompliant building owners, after multiple letters and phone calls by the Fire Department and a well-attended information session was conducted in April.

As of Jan. 16, Andover hotels still not in compliance of Nicole's Law included the Wyndham Hotel, Marriott Courtyard, LaQuinta Hotel, Staybridge Suites, Comfort Suites, Springhill Suites and Residence Inn, according to the Fire Department. Nursing homes included Genesis Academy Manor, Wingate at Andover and Atria Marland Place. The only three remaining noncompliant private day care facilities were Christ Church, Ballardvale Preschool and St. Roberts Day Care, according to Pomerleau, who said he expected all buildings still in violation to be up to code by Feb. 1.

"As of January, we had to go out and cite people because they weren't in compliance," said Pomerleau. "It was their responsibility to get the problem corrected and they were put on notice."

Pomerleau said he was surprised by all of the locations that failed to meet the deadline.

"I think it's poor," said Pomerleau. "For all the work we did I was surprised to see so many people behind the eight ball in the last week of December."

He said he did not know of any other fire department in the area that conducted information sessions about Nicole's Law.

If the buildings in violation do not have working carbon monoxide detectors by Feb. 1, a criminal complaint will be filed against the owners and they will have to appear in housing court, Pomerleau said.

"There has been no one that said, 'We're not going to do this,' " said Pomerleau. "I don't anticipate being at that stage."

Carbon monoxide is a product of the incomplete burning of fossil fuels from heating equipment like boilers, furnaces, stoves and hot-water heaters powered by gas, oil, coal or wood. The gas is less dense than air and can accumulate anywhere within a building.

In the human body, carbon monoxide impedes the transport of oxygen to cells through the blood. Symptoms of poisoning include nausea, dizziness, headache and fatigue.

In large or multiple-unit buildings, installing carbon monoxide-detecting systems can be costly and require engineers, according to Mansfield. That's why the department took an active approach in 2007, Mansfield said.

"This is a very costly thing to implement," said Mansfield. "I wanted to give as many business owners as much time as Andover Fire Rescue could give them to make sure they were compliant with Nicole's Law."

In the case of Andover's elementary schools, Piantedosi said that the purchase of the carbon monoxide detectors was at first delayed due to confusion over whether battery-powered or hard-wired units were needed.

Though not expensive projects for the schools, the hard-wire installations at the schools still required a fair amount of time to be done properly, he said.

"We certainly have not ignored the law," said Piantedosi. "It's one of those things that with all of the other things going on, it didn't get done when it should have."

Despite the fire code violation, Piantedosi said school building safety has not been compromised.

The town employs a full-time boiler technician who performs weekly inspections at all schools, Piantedosi said. Early warning systems would also notify the town if there were ever a boiler malfunction at a town facility.

"As far as safety is concerned, we do not compromise that," said Piantedosi. "There are safety devices on those boilers that give us an early warning long before (a malfunction)," Piantedosi said. "The reason why laws like this are passed are that other buildings don't have the type of programs that we have."

The enforcement of Nicole's Law has occurred in stages. The first deadline in March 2006 required detectors in all single, two- and multi-family dwellings and dormitories, including Phillips Academy and Merrimack College.

The recent deadline, bumped a year after first falling on Jan. 1, 2007, covered all "transient residential occupancies," according to Pomerleau.

Pomerleau also anticipated a third phase of carbon monoxide detector enforcement in the future, possibly covering schools and commercial buildings. The law was intended to cover all buildings, he said.