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Home Depot fined $1.3 million for code violations

mtlogcabin

mtlogcabin

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Home Depot paying $1.3M for fire code violations in arson that destroyed San Jose store

Home Depot is paying $1.3 million in fines after an investigation revealed fire code violations following an arson that burned a South San Jose store to the ground, prosecutors said.
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CRIME

Home Depot paying $1.3M for fire code violations in arson that destroyed San Jose store​




SAN JOSE – Home Depot is paying $1.3 million in fines after an investigation revealed fire code violations following an arson that burned a South San Jose store to the ground, prosecutors said.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen's office announced the fine against the hardware giant Monday, which followed an investigation by the DA's office and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives into the 2022 fire that destroyed the store on Blossom Hill Road.

"Fire code violations are potential tragedies in waiting. Ignoring them isn't just risky; it's reckless. It risks far more than property. It risks lives," Rosen said in a statement.

On April 9, 2022, a man trying to steal tools set a fire in the store. The fire quickly spread, destroying the 98,827 square foot store, causing an estimated $17 million in inventory loss.

home-depot-fire-2.png
Firefighters battle a 5-alarm fire at a Home Depot in San Jose, California.SANTA CLARA COUNTY SHERIFF
Prosecutors said no water came from the sprinkler system. Meanwhile, firefighters who responded to the blaze were blocked from the fire lane and fire department connections by high piles of pallets.

According to investigators, the store's automatic fire suppression water sprinkler system had been disabled at the time of the fire. Home Depot was told the system was not working, but did not fix it.

Investigators also learned that 13 other Home Depot stores across the country were issued notices of fire code violations between 2018 and 2023.

The DA's office said Home Depot will pay $850,000 in civil penalties along with $150,000 to a nonprofit focusing on fire prevention and outreach in Santa Clara County.

Home Depot cooperated with the investigation, took action on the fire code violations at Santa Clara County stores and implemented new training and tracking methods, according to prosecutors.

Dyllin Jaycruz Gogue was arrested and charged with arson in connection with the fire.
 
mtlogcabin said:
"According to investigators, the store's automatic fire suppression water sprinkler system had been disabled at the time of the fire. Home Depot was told the system was not working, but did not fix it."
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How does a fire sprinkler system become "disabled"? The only thing I can imagine is if someone turned off the valve at the street or at the DCDA. But why would they do that?!
 
Joe.B said:
To stop the leak. Seen it more than once.
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Wow, either I have been incredibly naive, or I've had responsible building owners, or both. I've had building where someone broke or set off a sprinkler head and the system was shut down to limit water damage, but it was always restored in less than 24 hours. A box of replacement heads are kept in the riser closet.
 
Yikes said:
Wow, either I have been incredibly naive, or I've had responsible building owners, or both. I've had building where someone broke or set off a sprinkler head and the system was shut down to limit water damage, but it was always restored in less than 24 hours. A box of replacement heads are kept in the riser closet.
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Yes, and if a sprinkler system has to remain disabled for more than (IIRC) 24 hours, a fire watch has to be posted.

To disable a sprinkler system AND to block the fire lanes and Siamese is incredibly stupid.
 
Most of the population has no idea how fire safety works. Block egress, chaining panic bars, holding fire doors open - wouldn't it be great if schools did a week on such things? I am just not surprised by this. I doubt anyone ever told anyone at the store to not turn and leave the fire sprinkler off.
 
bill1952 said:
Most of the population has no idea how fire safety works. Block egress, chaining panic bars, holding fire doors open - wouldn't it be great if schools did a week on such things? I am just not surprised by this. I doubt anyone ever told anyone at the store to not turn and leave the fire sprinkler off.
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In the 1990s I evaluated a high rise building for safety. On one of the upper floors, the doors leading into both exit stairwells were welded shut, leaving the only way in and out via the elevator lobby. Found out later that the entire floor was leased to a federal LEO, and the boss had told the building owner that federal security needs trumped local building code enforcement. I reported the condition to the local building official and left it in his hands.
I don’t think they are in the same building anymore.
 
I once found a sprinkler valve off...chained off, in a nursing home. When questioned, I was told by the maintenance staff it had been turned off because of a leak, for a very long time. They chained it to prevent it from being turned back on by one of the apparently very few in the building who thought it was a bad idea. The administrator of course new nothing about it. As I recall, nobody knew where the key was.
 
I've wondered on a new building why there isn't a operation manual. For the systems I design I specify an ops manual and instruction at start, and an inspection, report, and instruction at one year.
 
It's been over 30-years since I personally installed a flow switch and or tamper switch on sprinkler systems in NJ.

Even back in the late 80's and early 90's these devices were mandated and if tripped reported to the monitoring center.

They required annual inspections not only by the service company, but the local FD.

I can remember on a system once that burst due to a frozen pipe that was shut down, I kept getting notification on my pager every 12 hours from the central office that the system had not sent a restoral yet. Hence, back in service. It did that for 6 days till they could repair the system.

That was over 30-years ago. How that happened in a HD in Cali in 2022, not sure but personally, I always felt the connection should be installed in one of those Parking Islands just across the front drive, this way no one had to get that close to hookup & the odds of something blocking it was minimal.
 
Totally guessing here, 100% assumptions: Alarm company gets the notification and calls the store. Store manager says "false alarm" so the dispatcher silences the notification. Store never resets the system so no new notifications go out.
 
Joe.B said:
Totally guessing here, 100% assumptions: Alarm company gets the notification and calls the store. Store manager says "false alarm" so the dispatcher silences the notification. Store never resets the system so no new notifications go out.
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Been over 30 years since I was in that specific trade, however back then we used to set the 24hour test signal on large properties to 12 hours, it was a company policy, not a code mandate. Did it for insurance reasons to know if someone was touching it.

From where I sit, when the system sent its 24-hour test, depending on the panel manufacture it would resend the trouble condition of the tamper, the monitoring companies' systems back then could be set to send a digital notification if the system was not returned to ready with a restore, or at least the daily report for the last 24-hours.

IT's more in the monitoring service side than the panel side. That technology was there 30 years ago, wondering how 30-years later it went away?

I am just guessing here but I will assume if the sprinkler system had monitored devices, flow and tamper switches, the panel which was normally installed at the entry back in the old days, would show the trouble condition also as a visual for everyone to see.

Again, a guess been a long time.
 
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