Hundreds of in-home day care providers and foster homes in the 19 smallest Maryland counties are months behind on required fire inspections by the state fire marshal's office, which says it lacks the funding to conduct the biannual inspections.
All new day care and foster homes still receive fire inspections when they are licensed, but the state fire marshal's office stopped the reinspections in September.
State Fire Marshal Rocco Gabriele said yesterday his office can't keep pace with the increase in in-home child care operations across the state. "The numbers have skyrocketed," Mr. Gabriele said. "We just don't have the resources to do all the inspections."
He also said the halt in reinspections every two years isn't posing a big safety threat.
"There really isn't that much of a problem with fire safety in these homes," Mr. Gabriele said. "That was one of the main things we looked at."
He said that about 98 percent of the first-time inspections of child care providers show no major problems, and he could only recall one fatal incident at a family child care home during his 13 years as the state's fire marshal. That was a Baltimore County fire in which two children died in 1985.
But Mr. Gabriele's decision has angered at least one state legislator, who says the fire marshal's decision is endangering children's lives.
"There is no excuse not to be doing these inspections," said state Sen. Martin G. Madden, a Howard County Republican, who heard about the problem during a recent meeting with Howard day care providers. "The lack of funding is not an acceptable excuse. This is a state agency that is charged with public safety."
Child care providers also are upset. In the absence of the fire reinspections, they've been receiving 120-day operating permits instead of standard license renewals.
"We want our licenses," said Lisa Hall, Columbia family child care provider who has received two successive temporary permits while awaiting her biannual fire reinspection.
"People ask me does this mean you're not really licensed," Ms. Hall said. "What if a fire happens? Who would be liable?"
Patricia Jennings, acting executive director of the state Child Care Administration, said her department is negotiating with the fire marshal on ways to continue reinspections. She said the agencies are close to an agreement.
"It's a money issue," Ms. Jennings said. "We feel very strongly that we are very close to resolving this. We feel that our children need to be protected."
