The fire alarm system at one of the few buildings in Duval County that can’t be evacuated is failing and will cost more than $740,000 to replace.
The fire detection and suppression system at the Pretrial Detention Facility, as well as the systems at the Police Memorial Building and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Community Transition Center, are slated for major upgrades. Those will include replacing fire sensors, notification devices, wiring and control panels.
The cost of the project for all three buildings is $1.1 million.
Legislation enacted May 25 by City Council to appropriate $717,000 for the repair and replacement states the fire alarm systems also do not comply with building code requirements.
The equipment was installed in 1991 and some components do not meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition, some parts that need to be replaced no longer are available due to the age of the system.
“It probably lasted beyond its life expectancy,” said Tara Wildes, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office director of corrections.
Aging infrastructure in older buildings is a fact the city deals with on a regular basis, said Luis Flores, chief of public buildings.
The city maintains more than 100 structures in Duval County. Some of the oldest and most challenging are the multistory structures in Downtown.
Most of those have building engineers whose job is to constantly monitor the condition of their buildings and of each building’s systems such as HVAC, roofing, windows and fire safety.
“The engineers know the buildings,” Flores said.
Whereas privately owned buildings are inspected once a year by the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, the city’s real estate is evaluated on a continuous basis.
Over the next five years, more than $20 million will be spent to upgrade and maintain city buildings, Flores said.
The Pretrial Detention Facility north of East Bay Street — commonly referred to as the jail — could not be evacuated in the traditional sense if there were a fire in the building. That’s not an issue for several reasons, Wilde said.
First, the facility was designed and built using few, if any, combustible materials in construction or in furnishing the space. Smoking is not allowed in the building, so possession of ignition sources also is prohibited.
“There’s not much to burn inside the dorms and little opportunity for a fire to be set,” Wildes said.
The population housed in the jail prevents just opening the doors and getting everyone out of the structure if there was a fire.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain custody of detainees if they were simply sent to the parking lot to wait for the fire to be extinguished.
“We’re open 24/7 with unhappy customers,” said Wildes.
In the event of a fire, inmates would be moved to another part of the building, Wildes said.
All corrections officers are trained to fight fires and self-contained breathing apparatus is installed on all floors. Fire drills are scheduled on a regular basis.
Age and condition of the fire alarm system notwithstanding, there’s a plan in place for any contingency.
“We have drills every shift, every month,” Wildes said. “There’s not much we haven’t had to deal with before.”
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