Hamilton firefighters respond to foul-smelling exhaust fumes at Lalor Elementary School
HAMILTON >> Unpleasant fumes forced Hamilton firefighters to respond to Lalor Elementary School on two separate occasions in a 24hour period, officials confirmed.
The foul smell originated from a temporary boiler that was hastily installed Sunday inside a trailer unit at the rear of the school. Tests confirmed there was no presence of carbon monoxide, and health officials Tuesday deemed the environment “completely safe,” but the snafu disrupted the academic setting and left parents disappointed.
“The kids were not evacuated from the school when the fumes were in the school,” said Gina Keuper, a parent who has two children who attend Lalor School. “They should have called parents and said, ‘Come get your kids. We’re closing the school for the rest of the day,’” she said.
The purpose of the temporary boiler was to provide a source of heat to the building pending the completion of a permanent capital project.
Firefighters responded to Lalor School about 11:15 p.m. Monday and again at 11:50 a.m. Tuesday for the same issue—unpleasantfumes from the temporary boiler blowing from the trailer and into the building, according to Hamilton Fire District 3 Lt. Timothy Sharpley.
When school was in session about noontime Tuesday, Hamilton firefighters ventilated the school building’s stairwells, according to Sharpley, who said the odor smelled like diesel fuel.
After ventilating the building and verifying there was no environmental hazard, the firefighters “determined the students could remain in school, provided the unit remains shut down,” Sharpley said.
The Hamilton Township School District over the spring break implemented planned asbestos abatement in the boiler rooms at the following six schools: Alexander, Lalor, Langtree, Sunnybrae, Yardville, and Hamilton West, according to Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Thomas J. Ficarra.
“This work is part of the district’s $18 million Energy Savings Improvement Program (ESIP) and mirrors the work done at seven other schools last summer after the close of school,” Ficarra said about 11:10 a.m. Tuesday in a press release issued by his office. “The abatement is a required first step prior to the replacement and upgrade of the boilers under the ESIP.”
Keuper said the district should have waited till summer recess to begin the abatement process, but Ficarra explained the rationale for why the district preferred to start the abatement process sooner rather than later.
“While the project was planned, the district monitored the weather prior to spring break and with the above average temperatures made the determination to move forward as planned,” Ficarra said in his press release. “The district continued to monitor the weather during spring break and with the predications of a continued cold snap this week and possibly into next week, secured temporary boilers for those schools. The delivery and installation of the temporary boilers was completed on Sunday.”
But the only boiler that emitted unpleasant and academically disruptive fumes was the one installed at Lalor School. Ficarra said the district would complete testing at the five other schools on Tuesday as a precautionary measure, but there was no indication that any of the other schools suffered from the odor-related issues that Lalor School students and staff had to endure this week.
Hamilton Township’s top health official Jeff Plunkett on Tuesday confirmed Lalor School was environmentally safe and free of any air quality hazards. He described the odor as an “unpleasant smell” in the form of “exhaust from the trailer itself.”
Plunkett said the odor of the exhaust could only be smelled in “just a couple of classrooms in the one corner” where the adjacent trailer resided.
With Lalor School standing alone as the only Hamilton Township public school that experienced a boiler snafu this week, the parent Gina Keuper said Lalor School always gets the short end of the stick.
“It seems that Lalor School gets the crappiest of anything and everything. Everything sucks,” she said. “There are so many problems with the school. It is a very, very old school.”
Dr. Sue Ferrara, one of the nine elected members who serves on the Hamilton Township Board of Education, on Tuesday spoke in her individual capacity to express remorse for the Lalor School boiler debacle.
“I can only speak for myself and not the Board of Education. First, I would like to apologize to the Lalor School staff and community for the disruptions of the last 24 hours. As with our own homes, sometimes efforts to fix one problem can lead to others,” Ferrara said Tuesday afternoonin a prepared statement.
“As the interim superintendent noted in his release, this work is part of an ongoing Energy Savings Improvement Plan. The work done over the recent break meant that the district could stay on a timeline that would prevent cost overruns, yet get the work completed,” Ferrara said. “Mother Nature obviously threw everyone a curve ball. While temperatures at this time of year can fluctuate, no one expected a frigid blast of cold air from Canada. But it happened.”
Ferrara said the trailer and temporary boiler at Lalor School was clearly “not in working order,” proven by the fact that firefighters were called multiple times for service in a 24-hour period.
The vocal school board member, emphasizing she was strictly speaking for herself and not the board, said she thanks the firefighters “for taking care of our Lalor school community and the surrounding neighborhood,” adding, “I have been assured the problem will be addressed before the make-shift boiler (the trailer) is restarted.”
Jay Morris, the district’s director of elementary education, sent a recent message “to inform the school community and staff that upon our return to school on Monday April 4 from spring recess, you may notice a tractor trailer parked adjacent to your school.”
Morris went on to explain the district’s energy savings improvement plan and added, “For safety purposes, your school staff will monitor and encourage all students to keep a safe distance from the trailer. We would also appreciate your help by explaining this to your children prior to school on Monday.”
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