Parents concerned about faulty fire alarms in Warwick schools

March 23, 2017 11:04 pm

A uniformed firefighter will now roam the halls of Norwood and Holliman Elementary Schools in Warwick during hours that the two buildings are occupied to keep watch in case of a fire. That decision comes after concern and anger were expressed from multiple parents.

The problem with the fire systems actually isn’t new. The systems haven’t been working since late last month. The issues were discovered and reported to the fire department, who put in place a fire watch system in place. That system entailed a janitor patrolling the school and alerting emergency personnel and a worker on the intercom system if any problem arose. Parents; however, were not notified of the problem until this week.

"Safety wise this is something that we do on a normal occurrence,” said Assistant Fire Chief James Kenney.

Kenney says that is in accordance with fire code. He insists that at no time were children at risk.

"We wouldn’t advise or acknowledge that those buildings should be occupied unless we knew for sure that they are safe, absolutely not. We feel those buildings are completely safe with the fire watch and the way it is being taken care of right now,” said Kenney.

The Superintendent now admits parents "needed to be notified sooner."

That’s something those we spoke with can agree with.

"I am extremely angry,” said parent Martha Shaw. "I feel like they’ve kept everything out of the limelight and they only try to do positive publicity for the citizens of Warwick to actually know what is going on. And, everything that is not necessarily a positive thing they try to keep behind closed doors."

In a statement Superintendent Philip Thornton again emphasized that the schools have been safe to operate. He says plans are moving forward to replace the systems in both schools.

ABC 6 News was not able to get a time line as to when new systems will be implemented in either school.