Are city building hazards being fixed?

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The city of Houston failed for years to inspect for fire code violations in its own buildings and there's little understanding by city officials on how buildings got into such poor shape and what exactly has been fixed, an ABC-13 investigation has found.

"The city's been lax in maintaining it's own buildings," said Alvin White, the acting president for the Houston firefighter's union.

It's not just White's opinion. A city audit this year ordered up building inspections after years of building maintenance neglect. And ABC-13 reviewed hundreds of inspections written up in the wake of that audit.

They show a voluminous amount of problems in city-owned buildings across Houston.

Some are minor problems, such as storage boxes stacked too high. Other problems are major, and dozens of those have been found so far.

Examples uncovered by records and interviews show:

• Electrical hazards at a BARC animal shelter building on 2700 Evella Street in northeast Houston.
• A red-tagged fire alarm system at the Melrose Park Community Center off the Hardy Toll Road north of the loop.
• Fire stations across the city rife with problems, according to reports: Some didn't have enough fire extinguishers, some lacked working exit signs and didn't have enough smoke detectors. Many inspections noted dangerous wiring and flammable liquids dangerously stored.
• Three years ago, fire officials uncovered major problems at the fire department's Dart Street facility, including lack of sprinkler coverage, bolted exit doors and blocked exits. These problems should have been fixed immediately. Only some of the problems have been fixed. The most severe problems remain.
• And at 611 Walker Street, the downtown Houston high-rise that's home to Public Works, Human Resources and many other city departments, a March inspection showed that 98 percent of emergency exit signs were not working.

"That's not acceptable," White said.

White said that the city has picked up the pace in fixing hazards over the past three months.

Scott Minnix, director the city's General Services Department, which oversees the maintenance of most city buildings, said that fixes are a top priority and also said they are now taking place.

He said that a plan is in place to identify problems and fix them. For example, when for fire station problems, "We have teams to go to every station," Minnix said.

"I really do like the inspections," Minnix said. "We're all in alignment. We all want safe buildings."

But ABC-13 found other problems that raise questions about how aligned city departments are when it comes to fixing life and safety issues at city-owned buildings. In addition, there appears to record-keeping confusions -- and secrecy.

For example, city officials are keeping secret the initial audit from earlier this year that called for the inspections, citing that it's part of an investigation.

And the records confusion: After ABC-13 broke the story in July about the lack of city inspections, Mayor Annise Parker said that there had been "277 inspections of city facilities," with "21 issues that required city re-inspection."

But when ABC-13 asked fire department officials for copies of every inspection, that tally added up to 169. And there were no records showing fire inspectors returning to re-inspect buildings when problems were found. General Services Chief Minnix said that re-inspections had taken place.

Fire officials provided documentation showing fixes ordered up for 55 city buildings.

Only after ABC-13 pointed out that absent from that list was 611 Walker, the city high-rise with massive exit-sign fail rate, did fire officials find records showing that new signs had been purchased.

Fire Department spokesman Ruy Lozano defended the department and said that many fixes are being made, and some of those fixes made quickly.

"A lot of the corrections have been made immediately when we discovered it," Lozano said.

Minnix said that it will take another year and a half to get to all the highest priority problems fixed.

It's unclear, though, when all the fire inspections will be complete.

Fire officials say they need to inspect 2,500 city structures to know what all the problems are. Records indicate only a fraction of those inspections have been completed.

Producer: Trent Seibert