Parents question safety at Sierra House Elementary after school reopens soon after fire

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A fire that destroyed a hallway, reading room and teacher's room on Sunday, November 11 was just seconds away from engulfing all of Sierra House Elementary. Had it not been for the quick response by Lake Valley Fire Protection District the discussion would be about replacing the 44-year-old South Lake Tahoe school rather than the processes involved to get it cleaned up and opened in just two days.

At the center of the issue is why was the school reopened on Wednesday, November 14 and why there hasn't been open communication between Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) and parents.

On Wednesday, November 28, the school's PTA held a meeting for parents, those involved in the fire, cleanup and repair, Principal Karin Holmes, Dr. James Tarwater, the LTUSD superintendent, School Board President Barbara Bannar and LTUSD staff.

One thing was clear during the meeting which involved some heated conversation at times, there are some very upset parents and teachers.

"We are all invested in the school and are here because we care," Principal Holmes said as she started off the meeting. "Our intents are all positive. We come together and make this work or we pull apart, blame and divide which does us no good."

Parents and teachers were at the meeting to express their displeasure that the school was deemed safe to occupy just two days after ServPro of South Lake Tahoe, a fire and water cleanup and restoration franchise, started the cleanup. Since the school has opened, students and teachers have had headaches, some respiratory issues and upset stomachs, kids have had lunch outside due to the air in the cafeteria and some classes have had to double up in order to stay out of the affected "upper pod" area.

"We want to make sure someone is watching out for the students," said parent Brian Martone. He and his wife have kept their two children out of school since the fire due to concerns the building was not safe.

"Through numerous calls and emails to the school board, state and local fire departments, state and local building jurisdictions it has become clear that proper steps where not followed when the decision was made to reopen the school," Martone told South Tahoe Now.

Timeline of events:

- Sunday, Nov. 11 9:35 p.m. - Fire breaks out in the Upper Pod area of the school.
- Monday, Nov. 12 - Fire is out, scene declared safe for entry and ServPro arrives to start work. They were brought in to contain the area and scrub the air. Their processes (explained below) took the two whole days prior to school opening and continued afterwards at night.
- Tuesday, Nov. 13 - Carpets are shampooed, Simplex tests all alarms and finds them in working order.
- Wednesday, Nov. 14 - School is said to be safe and is in session.
- Thursday-Friday, Nov 15-16 - Upper pod classrooms aren't inhabitable and kids double up in portable classrooms for rest of school day and during school on Friday.
- School is then out for the Thanksgiving holiday and ServPro is at the school continuing cleanup.
- Tuesday, Nov. 27, Nate Stewart, Certified Industrial Hygienist arrives at request of ServPro to evaluate the process. Belfor takes over the restoration from ServPro at the request of the risk retention group for the insurance company. LTUSD environmental engineer Steve Brennan on board, adding another level of oversight. He will be the Recovery Project Manager for Sierra House clean up and rebuild.
- Wednesday, Nov. 28 - Additional Hepa air cleaning with the use of carbon filters starts with Belfor.
- Thursday, Nov. 29 - Sierra House Principal Karin Holmes starts sending out "Sierra House Recovery Process Bulletins" to parents and staff. (see end of story)
- Friday, Nov. 30 - Additional asbestos tests sent to the lab and analyzed as of 11:00 a.m. Asbestos is found in a burned door in the contained area so testing will be done on all EPA standards for particulates with the cannisters that arrived today. Results at latest Sunday night and parents will be informed by Monday morning.

Some parents have accused LTUSD of wanting to keep the school opened just so they can collect the daily funding received when students are in school.

"Had the District closed the school, it would have asked for a waiver from CDE (California Department of Education) and if not approved the District would have to extend the school year, so funding was not a consideration," Dr. Tarwater told South Tahoe Now.

Communication and Transparency

Parents told Dr. Tarwater they are not happy with the lack of communication from his office and feel the cleanup process hasn't been transparent. In the absence of communication and information, people question what is happening, brought up one parent.

"Our main concern was to get the fire out," Dr. Tarwater said. "We then laid out a short-term plan. Looking back we should have sent out notices. No doubt about it, communication is the key."

"Parents should have been notified about the air conditioners," said teacher and parent Heather Hart. "Students and teachers were sick." Hart said they were told an air quality test had been done on November 14 when in reality it wasn't done until two days later.

"I'm disappointed in the lack of transparency," Hart added.

Going forward Dr. Tarwater said the completion of the cleanup process and eventual rebuilding will be under the supervision of Brennan who will be communicating with the school and parents and provide South Tahoe Now with all updates.

Restoring the School

"The decisions Dr. Tarwater made were sound decisions," said John Allen, owner of the local ServPro franchise. "If my kids were in this school they would have been in school that Wednesday."

After evaluation of the scene ServPro first worked to get out all burned material which was placed into a dumpster.

Allen said they then used an air scrubber which is a machine that helps eliminate odors and clean the air by using a filtration system to suck air in and filter it before releasing it back into the school. Also used was a negative air fan whose job is to remove the contaminated air through ducts, creating negative air pressure - a vacuum effect. This was followed by a HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) vacuum which collects contaminants and filters airborne particles like soot. It was used on ceilings, walls and floors.

They also incorporated the use of an ozone machine which neutralizes odors after the burned materials are removed and the surfaces are cleaned. Ozone goes into the molecules of air and destroys it. They used it about two to three hours a night.

Since ozone cleaning can create harm if breathed in when large quantities are used, many of the parents had concern with its use. Allen said they only used it minimally when it was needed as do hotels, food-processing plants and other disaster restoration companies.

Allen says they worked for 48 straight hours on air scrubbing. Then continued with more work after school opened back up for students.

"We weren’t putting anyone in danger by the procedures we were using," said Allen.

During the two weeks ServPro was on the job they continued transferring and cleaning of air at night when nobody else was around, then fresh air was exchanged in the morning and machines were shut down during the school day (due to noise).

After their vacuuming and air work, teachers said they still found dust on all surfaces in their rooms.

Allen explained to South Tahoe Now that there are different types of dust - normal dust (gray colored) as in a home, dirt dust (brown in color) and smoke dust (black in color). He said with the fresh air exchanging a lot of the outside dust came in.
Now it's not dusty because of the recent snow and lack of normal dirt found in the air, especially when windy, said Allen. Air scrubbers run every night and every morning, fresh air exchanged, the moved the scrubbers out of the classrooms due to its noise.

"We can always look back and ask what we could do differently," said Allen. "Setting up protocols going forward is important. Pain plus perspective equals growth."

"What the district did was sound. Clean up was done very well and very adequately," added Allen.

Belfor came in and replaced ServPro due to the call of the insurance adjuster, the company they use. "This stuff happens all the time, just not in Tahoe," said Allen.

"Servpro was brought in immediately to contain the area and scrub the air," said Dr. Tarwater on Thursday. "They followed their protocol for post-fire restoration and the District relied on their professional experience and continues to do so. The District’s insurance carrier, with its authority, replaced Servpro with Belfor, only two days ago. Belfor will continue to scrub the air and follow fire damage protocol and recommendations per Nate Stewart, Certified Industrial Hygienist with Premier Environmental Consulting."

Going Forward

If there ever is another fire in a LTUSD school, things will happen differently said Dr. Tarwater. There will be a protocol and step-by-step plan in place that will be followed. There is an after-fire group being formed with LTUSD and Sierra House parents that will help create those protocols.

South Tahoe High had to have rooms cleaned several times after the Angora Fire since it was so close to the school. Some things were learned in that situation but having a fire inside the school had not been experienced.

Dr. Tarwater said they just couldn't close the school for three weeks until all of the air scrubbing was done. He said of the school's 465 students, 57.3 percent are lower income and receive free or reduced meals and 34 are homeless youth (per McKinney-Vento standards).

"They have a tough time when you close a school," he said since many can't afford day care.

Handling that decision will be part of the after-fire working group plans.

"I know learning is the primary function of the school system and I cannot say enough good things about my children’s education," Martone said in a letter to Dr. Tarwater and the LTUSD School Board. "The concern I have now is that the school system consists of nine campuses and I would be willing to bet that this is not the first-time repairs or modifications have been made without the proper oversite."

Belfor will now continue to scrub the air at the school and follow fire damage protocol and recommendations per Nate Stewart who is with Premier Environmental Consulting and was at Wednesday's meeting. Detailed cleaning began this week and he will stay involved and oversee the cleaning operations.

Sierra House Recovery Process Bulletins

Brennan and Belfor representatives will now communicate daily with the Sierra House community, according to Dr. Tarwater. Brennan is answering all of the teacher's questions taking the route that is safest for the school and students. Information will then be sent out by Principal Karin Holmes.

Holmes said at 2:39 p.m. Friday that the air quality sample cannisters that test for detailed Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) were used to collect test samples beginning at 12:00 p.m.

At 3:12 p.m. on Friday, November 30, asbestos was found in a door in the contained burn area. This door was damaged by the fire department when entering the building. A previous test for asbestos turned up negative. The contained area, which has been completely enclosed since the fire, is under negative air pressure and is being filtered through a HEPA filter. These are standardized procedures required by the EPA and OSHA who have been notified and who will be visiting for inspection and clearance next week.

Rebuilding

The California Division of the State Architect (DSA) provides design and construction oversight for K–12 schools, community colleges, and various other state-owned and leased properties. They were at Sierra House Friday afternoon to survey the building.

DSA contacted the school district on November 19 to discuss the status of the project and DSA requirements and the district gave DSA the following information:

Two rooms have sustained damage to the ceiling and sheet rock and have been closed off and they are stripping materials to do additional investigations regarding the scope of repairs.

The school district will have a structural engineer perform an evaluation and provide a report.

Reconstruction is not underway yet.

The district will evaluate the cost of the repair work in accordance regulations to determine whether or not submittal to DSA is required and provide this information to DSA.

"Based on the above information no submittal to DSA is required yet and whether or not a submittal to DSA is required for the remediation work is dependent on the cost of repairs as indicated in the DS Interpretation of Regulations," said Jennifer Iida, Public Information Officer from the CA Department of General Services.

South Tahoe Now will be following this story.