Updated at 12:15 p.m. June 16, 2015
The Los Angeles Fire Department has fallen months and even years behind on safety inspections at thousands of large apartment buildings, schools, hotels, churches and other structures that it considers the greatest risks for loss of life in major fires.
The department is lagging on inspections for about 6,800 of the buildings — a third of the structures the LAFD classifies as a priority mainly because they’re occupied by large numbers of people, according to documents obtained by the newspaper under the California Public Records Act.
Nearly half of those buildings were more than a year overdue for an inspector’s visit as of last week, and one in five was overdue by two years or more, the Times reported Tuesday. In addition, thousands of smaller apartment buildings have never been inspected, in violation of a state law requiring annual checks of housing structures with three or more units, according to LAFD records and interviews conducted by the newspaper.
Councilman Mitch Englander, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee, called today for a probe into the delays, saying the department’s data analysis program, FireSTAT LA, should be used to help prioritize inspections.
“The first responsibility of the LAFD isn’t to put out the fire, it is to prevent the fire from happening in the first place,” Englander said. “This inspection backlog puts lives across the city at risk, and the department must work to address this issue and take all steps necessary to eliminate this backlog.”
Englander’s motion also asks the LAFD to study the possibility of outsourcing the fire inspection duties or hiring county fire inspectors and retired city employees temporarily to work on alleviating the backlog.
The list of high-occupancy buildings overdue for inspection includes some at the massive Park La Brea apartment complex in Mid-Wilshire, Birmingham High School in Van Nuys and the historic downtown Millennium Biltmore hotel, The Times reported.
For Park La Brea, home to more than 10,000 people, four of 18 residential towers are overdue for inspections, according to The Times. At one of the buildings, the LAFD had no records showing up-to-date fire-safety tests and certifications for elevators, emergency power generators and water systems.
Park La Brea’s residential services director did not respond to requests for comment.
Over the years, several fires have broken out at the complex, although no injuries were reported, according to the LAFD and news accounts.
The list of buildings overdue for inspections includes virtually every type of structure: movie theaters, yoga parlors, pet clinics, McDonald’s restaurants and hair salons, The Times reported.
Single-family homes not required to undergo regular inspections.
—City News Service