PORT ARTHUR — A Port Arthur apartment complex failed two safety inspections before a July 4 fire claimed the lives of three children.
12news obtained copies of the Port Arthur Fire safety inspection which show the Arthur Square Apartments failed an inspection in April and in June.
View the failed inspections here.
The first report on April 19 said building 2 was red tagged. This means the manual fire alarm system will not work if a resident tries to pull the fire alarm.
The alarm panel on building 12 and 13 were also having issues according to the inspection report.
"Someone has to actually pull that and if it’s pulled there are sounders inside each apartment that would go off," said Port Arthur Fire Marshall Paul Washburn.
According to the inspection, there were missing extinguishers from several buildings, several smoke alarms needed batteries and one apartment in building two had electrical issues.
The next inspection was on June 21 which was almost two weeks before the fire killed three children.
In the second report, the fire alarm for building 2 was still not working properly and extinguishers needed to be replaced and inspected.
However, Washburn said the apartment made some progress because smoke detectors were replaced and there were more fire extinguishers.
"There were smoke detectors in the units so there was protection present but was it 100 percent?” “No,” said Washburn.
He explains if the apartment was inspected without having any improvements then the fire department would most likely issue a citation.
The apartment currently relies on battery powered smoke detectors and a manual fire alarm system to protect residents. He said the apartment was built back in 1968 so it is only required to follow the fire code in 1965. The code in 1965 does not require that building to have an automatic fire alarm or sprinkler sytem.
“A lot of people refer to it as grandfathering, it’s allowed to continue to work under the code that it was built under,” said Washburn.
12news reached out to the apartment complex for comment but did not hear back.
Washburn said he hopes to finish his investigation into the cause of the fire by the end of the week.
View the failed inspections here.