The failure of two Finch Elementary School maintenance workers to reopen a valve on a furnace after a Nov. 30 inspection was the cause of a carbon monoxide leak Monday that sent more than 30 students to the hospital, the school system says.
Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis said Thursday the error was discovered Wednesday after staff reviewed school video surveillance tapes that showed the workers entering the furnace boiler room.
“Neither of these two individuals came forward,” Davis said at a morning news conference. “To say that is a disappointment is an understatement. We have now launched a full investigation of that.”
APS officials declined to identify the two maintenance workers or say what if any action would be taken against them. “We are still investigating,” Davis said.
The incident frightened parents and raised questions about what happened and why schools don’t have detectors for the gas, which is odorless, colorless and fatal in high concentrations. Atlanta Fire Department technicians said the Finch gas leak, at 1,700 parts per million, was 30 times higher than acceptable standards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says a safe level is 50 parts per million exposure over an eight-hour period.
The students were sickened but apparently none was seriously injured.
The school district has installed carbon monoxide monitors at Finch and is moving quickly to install them at schools throughout the district, Davis said. How much that will cost will depend on whether the detectors are “hard-wired” to school alarm systems or are similar to the battery-operated detectors many people have at home, Davis said.
In the meantime, APS is asking legislators to consider pushing for state regulations requiring carbon monoxide detectors in all schools. Twenty-five states have regulations requiring the carbon monoxide detectors in some buildings, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, but only Connecticut and Maryland mandate them in schools.
“It might be better to ask for a change in local building codes,” Davis said. “That way it could be done faster.”
Cobb County school officials said they are studying the feasibility of detectors in that system’s 114 schools. Gwinnett County school board member Mary Kay Murphy said this week that putting the detectors in all schools would be expensive. Fulton schools Superintendent Robert Avossa said he would “support any law that keeps safety as the No. 1 priority.”
The furnace at Finch was replaced with a temporary one installed Wednesday. The temporary furnace passed inspection and officials said the school should be open Friday.
Davis said the furnace had to be replaced because when the workers left the valve leading to the heat exchanger closed “they put a lot of stress on the furnace for 48 hours.”
A new permanent furnace will be installed over Christmas break at a cost of about $52,000, APS officials said.
Since Monday about 500 Finch students have been attending Kennedy Middle School.
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