A fire broke out on Tuesday evening at School 54 in Bucharest, more than 200 students were evacuated. According to data sent by the Emergency Situations Inspectorate of Bucharest-Ilfov upon HotNews.ro’s request, the fire started in one of the school’s toilets, where papers were on fire, and the fire was extinguished with a fire extinguisher. The school is subordinate to the 3rd sector, where the city hall carries out renovation works. Vice Mayor Lucian Judele wrote on Facebook that the students were evacuated without problems, but the smoke detectors were disabled due to construction, which could have caused serious problems. The vice mayor is asking Mayor Robert Negoitz to stop students from studying construction.

“The fire broke out around 5:30 p.m. We received a report of smoke in the toilet of school 54. According to the alarm, 8 special vehicles with water and foam, an evacuation vehicle, an ambulance, a special rescue squad, an ambulance and a SMURD brigade with a doctor were dispatched. Papers were burned in the toilet, students and teachers were evacuated from the school premises. At the time of the firemen’s arrival, about 215 people were evacuated, 13 of them adults, the rest were students. The fire was extinguished with the help of a fire extinguisher, covering an area of ​​about 2 square meters,” the ISU Bucharest-Ilfov press service informed HotNews.ro.

The Vice Mayor of USR in Sector 3, Lucian Yudele, pointed out that the students are studying at the construction site, the Sector 3 City Hall is carrying out renovations there and the smoke detectors would be turned off, which is a danger. for children.

• “How many more calls and warnings are needed to understand once and for all that the option when children go to school under construction (and the school under construction) cannot be tolerated even once more. day?
• I showed the dangers to which children are exposed when there is a construction site at school. Most of you agreed with me.
• However, there were parents who said that a fire was an almost impossible scenario.
• Tonight, reality trumped every statistic, probability and best-case scenario. We had a fire in the 54th school in the 3rd sector.
• Fortunately, the school staff evacuated the school in record time.
• During construction, smoke detectors go off and fires are detected late. This means that the evacuation time available to students and teachers is significantly reduced,” Judel wrote on the Facebook page.

He also wrote that no company “declared the winner” of the work in Sector 3 meets minimum safety standards. “Will there be any sanctions for the company guilty of disabling fire detectors in 54 schools?”.

As contacted by HotNews.ro, ISU representatives in Bucharest say they will check whether the sensors worked or not.

In connection with HotNews.ro, the mayor Robert Negojce said that he does not know. “I don’t know if the sensors worked or not. I know it was a minor incident, they were on their way. There is a construction site. I do not comment on the statements made by Mr. Judel,” Negojce told HotNews.ro.

I also asked for an answer from the City Hall of Sector 3, whether the sensors are working or not. The representatives of the institution confirmed that the sensors were turned off in some rooms of the school, including where the fire occurred.

“The fire alarm system is a complex system that is divided into zones. In this case, as a result of the works that were carried out and which involve actions that could activate the system, it was partially deactivated, respectively, in the areas affected by the modernization works, including the area where the fire occurred. Unfortunately, the closed area also includes the part of the building where the classes are held, because the system does not allow to close each sensor individually, but only a group of sensors,” reads the response sent by the City Hall of District 3. – Department of Investments and Acquisitions, at the request of HotNews.ro.