PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Fire inspections of Providence public schools have found boarded up exit doors, blocked escape windows, missing smoke detectors and potentially faulty alarms.
WJAR-TV reported the safety violations Friday.
Inspectors found blocked exits at Mt. Pleasant High School and Hope High School. At Martin Luther King Junior High escape windows were blocked by air conditioners and boxes.
Three middle schools were found to have missing smoke detectors, and 11 schools had fire alarms that had expired inspection stickers or warning lights indicating that they might not work.
In one elementary school an open tank of pool chlorine was found venting fumes into a corridor near a cafeteria.
Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare (PAH-ree) says schools will now be inspected annually and that the ‘‘more significant’’ violations need to be resolved.
