Cosumnes Fire Chief Issues Statement in Aftermath of Sac Bee Story on Deficient Fire Inspections

April 17, 2017 |

In the aftermath of a story published yesterday by the Sacramento Bee criticizing several regional fire departments, Cosumnes Fire Department Chief Tracey Hansen issued a statement this afternoon regarding the lapses and corrective actions underway.

The story by Sacramento Bee report Diana Lambert titled "Nobody inspected schools, apartment buildings for fire risk for years in Galt, Elk Grove and Folsom" documented lapses in fire inspections by the Cosumnes Fire Department, Folsom Fire, and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District. 

According to the story, the Cosumnes Fire Department, which is part of the Cosumnes Community Services District, has not inspected 44 schools in Elk Grove and Galt for several years. State law requires annual fire inspections of schools as well as a host of other structures such as daycare and senior care facilities.   

Below is Hansen's statement.

Cosumnes Fire Department has been working for several months to bring its department into compliance with state-mandated fire inspections at schools and other locations in our service area. The effort to schedule and complete these inspections predates any local media coverage of this issue.

We deeply value the public’s trust and believe the current lack of compliance with state-mandated inspections is unacceptable. The Board of Directors, the General Manager and the men and women of the Cosumnes Fire Department are committed and focused on making it right by coming into compliance this year and ensuring that this does not happen again in the future.

What we want members of the community to know is that we have completed all of the initial inspections in the Galt Union High School District and will have finished the inspections at all of the Galt Union Elementary School District on Monday April 17th. We also have begun the task of scheduling and completing inspections at the other required inspection sites within our service area. Completing these inspections is one of our top priorities for this year. To ensure we never experience another lapse in our inspections, we have purchased new software that will allow us to better schedule and monitor these inspections and made new staff assignments.