Thousands of people who work in and visit the Capitol complex every day are endangered by untested fire alarms, unprotected stairwells and unattended hazardous materials, a congressional agency said Monday as it issued eight citations for violations and ordered quick fixes.
The Office of Compliance said the violations, all fire hazards, are serious. The architect of the Capitol was told to rectify them quickly.
In particular, it said exit stairwells in the Capitol and three surrounding lawmaker office buildings were “unprotected against fire, smoke or toxic fumes, posing an undue danger to the lives and safety of occupants.”
The agency’s general counsel, Gary Green, said some of the stairwells have air vents “which exacerbate the smokestack effect” where the stairwells act as chimneys, pulling smoke and fumes into the upper levels.
He said the obligation to test and maintain sprinklers and alarm systems has been “almost uniformly disregarded for many years.”
Herb Franklin, administrative assistant for the architect’s office, which is responsible for congressional buildings and grounds, said “a lot of remedial work has already begun.” Franklin said the pace of work depends on the budget he gets from Congress.
An emergency spending bill now moving through Congress would provide $15 million this year to address the fire safety issue.
