Report: Santa Cruz Fire not fully compliant with required school, apartment inspections
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) The Santa Cruz County Grand Jury released a report Thursday detailing its findings about fire and safety inspections, and it found that 67% of schools were uninspected in 2019 and 85% of apartments were uninspected in the same year by the Santa Cruz Fire Department
The goal of the inspections the fire department conducts is fire prevention. They make sure the areas they inspect comply with fire and safety codes, especially in facilities that house vulnerable populations.
According to the report, 24 out of 36 schools were not inspected by the Santa Cruz County Fire Department, but 86% were not inspected in 2018. Sixteen of the schools serve 7,000 students.
The Grand Jury said 282 apartments are on the fire department's inspection list, and 41 of those were inspected.
In the report, the Grand Jury also said it did not analyze whether the inspection list was complete.
The Grand Jury looked at multiple agencies around Santa Cruz County, including Aptos-La Selva and Central Fire Districts, the Scotts Valley Fire District, Santa Cruz County Fire, Felton Fire District and the Watsonville Fire Department.
Three agencies- Santa Cruz County Fire, the Santa Cruz Fire Department and the Watsonville Fire Department had areas in the red for non-compliance in 2019. The Felton Fire district was unable to provide a record of inspections.
Read the full report below.
