SPRINGDALE -- A fire in a classroom prompted maintenance officials with the School District to rid campuses of unsafe lamps.
District officials spent several weeks working with campus staff on replacing incandescent light bulbs in personal lamps with LED light bulbs, which generate less heat, said Jared Cleveland, deputy superintendent for the district. District employees also had to make sure lamps were in proper working order.
Fire safety
Springdale Fire Department is among city fire departments that will assist residents with free batteries, smoke alarms, home safety inspections and home safety check lists.
“We do home safety inspections on request will do for anyone who requests it,” said Capt. John Cobb of the Springdale Fire Department.
Contact the Springdale Fire Administration at 479-751-4510.
Source: Staff report
Resolving issues with lamps and other potential fire hazards took 440 hours for the maintenance department, Cleveland said.
"We're not going to compromise when it comes to student safety," he said. "We do understand teachers and staff members like to have things that add a nice personal touch."
Lamp fires occur less frequently now that LED light bulbs are more common, said Capt. John Cobb with the Springdale Fire Department. Incandescent light bulbs can cause fires when a lamp rated for a 40-watt bulb has a 60-watt bulb.
"It's trying to pull too much energy into the piece of equipment than what it was designed to carry," he said. "Use the appropriate bulb for the fixture that you're going to be displaying in your home, office or classroom."
Excess heat can build up and can cause a lamp shade to catch on fire, Cobb said. The wrong type of bulb caused the fire in the Springdale school.
The fire occurred at Hellstern Middle School, Cleveland told School Board members this month. A custodian smelled smoke in the building, called in help from other custodians and opened a classroom to find flames. The sprinkler system had not yet started.
LED bulbs generate the same brightness as higher wattage bulbs, but are safer because they use a lower amperage and generate far less heat, Cobb said. Every lamp should have a tag on the cord or a sticker on the unit stating the appropriate light bulb to use.
Any equipment using electrical power can cause a fire. Electrical failures or malfunctions caused 13 percent of fires reported in homes and other buildings from 2007 to 2011, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
Another common problem is overloading electrical equipment, such as plugging in too many power cords to one outlet, Cobb said. This was an issue a couple of weeks ago when a family had a number of older power cords plugged into one another. The cords drew more power than the equipment was designed for. A cord failed and caused smoke damage in the home.
"It's not so much just lamps," he said. "It's the improper use of electrical equipment."
Two other recent fires in schools involved a laptop computer catching fire while charging overnight and an electric heater catching fire, said Jeremy White, director of maintenance for the district.
A safety sweep of the district buildings netted 60 lamps teachers no longer wanted or were unsafe, Cleveland said. Examples of problems included a lamp with an exposed wire and a heat lamp with a broken porcelain socket.
"A lot of them with faulty lamps didn't realize how significant of an issue it was," White said.
The attention on fire hazards raised some questions among staff, though Cleveland declined to allow an interview with staff members about the issue.
"With the issue having now been addressed and behind us, I don't feel it is appropriate to rehash the circumstances that led up to and came from the safety sweep of the facilities across the district," he said.
Cleveland had one conversation and received a few emails from staff, he said. An administrator had questions about removing property when they became known as safety threats.
Campuses now are at a new baseline for safety that will be up to principals to maintain, Cleveland said.
NW News on 12/25/2016