SCHOOLS: Governor vetoes fire safety bill

Legislation would have required smoke detectors in schools

A bill that would have eventually provided public schools in the state with classroom smoke detectors was vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson Monday, drawing an angry response from its author.

The bill, by Assemblyman Ted Lempert, D-Palo Alto, was drafted after a fire destroyed the wing of an East Palo school in February, endangering but not harming any students.

"It's very, very frustrating, after the near-tragedy in East Palo Alto," Lempert said of the veto. "Why should schools have less fire protection than we have in our homes and offices?

"I'm really shocked and quite upset at the veto."

Lempert's bill would have required classroom smoke detectors for all new schools, and installation of detectors when any school remodeling is done.

Now, schools are required to have fire alarm systems--the kind that are activated manually--but nothing else.

In a statement about his veto, Wilson noted, "(School) districts are not prohibited from installing more sensitive detection systems."

Lempert took strong issue with the governor's cost estimate of $1.6 billion to implement his bill. "We don't know where that figure came from," he said. Instead, he estimates it would cost $200 million to $300 million, over a several-year period, for implementation.

The legislation was supported by the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, which has responded to two school fires in East Palo Alto this year.

Noting that no fire protection is now required other than the manually activated alarms, Capt. Harold Schapelhouman said, "The fire district and Lempert's office attempted to change this outdated code through legislation because unlike most other buildings, school fire safety is governed under the state Education Code and not the Uniform Building Code."

Wilson, in vetoing the bill, said it should be "rewritten to delay implementation to six months after the passage of a bond by the voters. Until the passage of a bond, the failure to install a costly automatic fire detection and alarm system should not be allowed to hold up needed construction or improvements."

Lempert said he didn't know when such a state bond measure would be put before the voters. "We'll work with them see what can be done to pass it while they are still in office," he said of the Wilson administration. The governor leaves office at the end of 1998.

--Don Kazak

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