As Pioneer Place gets set to move forward with fire safety modifications to be completed by the end of January, officials from the county’s lone assisted living facility said other fire safety concerns found by the state have been addressed.
According to records obtained by the Enterprise from the Oregon Department of the State Fire Marshal, state officials determined in a survey in October 2023 that Pioneer Place had conditions that didn’t comply with under the modified federal Life Safety Code.
The key issue, which was the result of a complaint, according to interviews and state records, was that a central wall at Pioneer Place wasn’t adequately rated to withstand fire and didn’t extend through the attic. The wall divides the two primary operations at Pioneer – the nursing home and the skilled nursing center.
Corey Crismon, Pioneer Place administrator, said in a Thursday, Dec. 5, email that this is the only remaining issue of the four findings. Administrators will use money intended to cover operating costs to pay for the $61,000 project.
Crismon said Pioneer staff completed work to remedy the other issues state officials cited Pioneer for last fall.
The surveyor’s findings were released to the Enterprise recently through a public records request. The documents showed Pioneer Place lacked regular maintenance of the facility’s generator or alternate power sources.
The state found that “based on observations, record review and interviews” with the facility administrator and maintenance director at Pioneer, the facility failed to properly maintain the generator in the event of a power outage.
The federal code requires an annual generator inspection and testing to assess the generator’s performance during a power outage.
“All residents have the potential to be affected by a failure to inspect and load test the generator annually,” the state inspector wrote.
The records noted that the facility administrator and maintenance director could not produce documentation of the annual inspections. The state official wrote that the administrators “acknowledged the existence of these conditions.”
The state fire surveyor found that the fire sprinkler system had not been regularly tested to ensure an adequate supply of water to all parts of the building during a fire. The facility’s sprinkler system showed that system could not deliver enough water to extinguish a fire, according to documents from the surveyor’s visit in the fall.
Crismon said the violation was for one of two required sprinkler tests. He said the maintenance director died in May and the administrators could not find the documentation the fire marshal
was looking for. The sprinkler test passed once it was tested again, according to Crismon.
According to Crismon, Pioneer subsequently had the sprinkler system serviced by the facility’s vendor and it is now delivering enough water.
The records noted that Pioneer staff had not cleaned a sprinkler in the kitchen’s cooler, affecting its ability to detect a fire.
Pioneer staff subsequently cleaned the sprinkler and forwarded a photo to the state to come into compliance, the state records show.
The records also noted that Pioneer administrators failed to test, inspect and maintain fire door assemblies annually, as required by federal fire code.
During the surveyor’s visit, some doors were painted over, and the state official could not determine the fire rating of the door frames.
Crismon said the door frames were painted over when they received them from the factory. He said they sanded over the paint to expose the imprinted rating. Crismon said the ratings are also on the tops of the doors
Federal fire regulations require that fire ratings be legible on all door frames throughout a facility. The documents noted that Pioneer officials would ensure the facility correctly labels the doors.
Pioneer was also cited in April for not regularly cleaning its kitchen’s hoods, fans, ducts and grease-removal devices. The notice and order of corrections document from the state fire marshal’s office noted that the kitchen units need to be inspected and cleaned yearly.
The document reported that later, Pioneer sent a photo of the hood cleaning tag showing it was cleaned and inspected with the following service date.
Crismon said the other issues the fire safety officials found at Pioneer didn’t result in a significant financial cost to the facility.
“Most of it is routine maintenance,” he said.
News tip? Send your information to Steven Mitchell at [email protected].
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