Building Blocks Learning Center in Kittery on Wednesday. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

A Kittery day care didn’t have any carbon monoxide detectors in the building when 11 people were hospitalized last week because of exposure to the gas, according to a report from the state fire marshal’s office.

One parent shared the report with the Press Herald after it was sent out by the day care owner, but a spokesperson for the office refused to discuss it or answer questions, citing an ongoing investigation.

The fire marshal’s office has said no alarms were sounding in the day care last Wednesday afternoon when employees decided to evacuate Building Blocks Learning Center because some children and staff were feeling ill.

All of the town’s police and fire units responded to the scene. Of the 27 children and 10 staff, 11 people were treated at Portsmouth Regional Hospital for potential carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Office of State Fire Marshal later said the source of the carbon monoxide was a propane-powered concrete saw being improperly used indoors by workers in another business next door to the day care.

Maine law requires every child care facility to be equipped with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. But it wasn’t immediately clear last week whether the facility had them. On Thursday, the fire marshal’s office said in a statement that it planned to consult with the alarm company to determine whether the day care had the correct detectors.

A day later, the department filed a report that listed the absence of carbon monoxide detectors among more than a dozen code violations, according to the copy of the report shared with the Press Herald. Other problems included missing emergency lights outside one of the building’s bathrooms, “no fire extinguishers throughout the day care space,” and compatibility problems between parts of the fire alarm system in different areas of the space.

Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss declined to answer questions about the report, the violations and why they didn’t prevent the business from passing previous inspections.

Building Blocks owner Alaina Kelley sent the report to parents on Friday with a letter explaining some of the deficiencies. She wrote that she’s not sure why the fire marshal’s office would have allowed the center to begin the Maine Department of Health and Human Services licensing process two years ago without the required smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

The facility is closed indefinitely and can’t be reopened until the violations are rectified, she told parents. As of Tuesday, the entire building was closed and empty, including a spa business nearby.

“Many of these items should have been rectified before I ever proceeded with being licensed,” Kelley wrote in the letter. “I trusted the fire marshall’s office to tell me that everything was code compliant. This is why we have their department.”

She said someone in the fire marshal’s office told her the facility could have been approved because the inspector couldn’t tell the difference between a smoke alarm and combination alarm, which would detect both carbon monoxide and fire.

Kelley has not responded to several interview requests since last week.

A NEAR DISASTER

One parent, who asked not to be identified because she was worried about potential retribution, said she was never notified of the incident before she arrived at the day care to pick up her child. She said she pulled in to the parking lot just before 4 p.m. and panicked when she saw the flashing lights of the ambulances and fire trucks. She ran over to the teachers, who said her daughter was OK.

The gas infiltrated the facility around nap time, when staff noticed the children didn’t want to wake up, the parent said. Some employees and children had started vomiting and feeling dizzy.

The mother said it’s frustrating that the owner won’t take full responsibility for what happened and that the state failed to approve a safe place for her child.

“My daughter could’ve died that day,” she said.

Emergency personnel respond to Building Blocks Learning Center in Kittery for reports of carbon monoxide incident on Feb. 12. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

She said she’s never taking her daughter back to Building Blocks. For now, she is paying $500 per week for a nanny while weighing other options. Other parents are scrambling to find child care options as well, she said, amid the state’s struggling child care industry, where providers are raising prices because of a high demand for services and difficulty recruiting workers.

Kelley also owns other day care facilities in Maine, including Leaps & Bounds Learning Center in South Berwick and Stepping Stones Learning Center in Eliot.

In Maine, local code enforcement officers, the state fire marshal’s office and DHHS are all responsible for inspecting different elements of a new child care center.

According to a DHHS spokesperson, the agency does not begin its licensing process until the fire marshal has approved the building. DHHS inspects the center to make sure it complies with child safety standards but is not responsible for checking to see whether it complies with fire code — including whether it has working carbon monoxide detectors. It’s unclear exactly what the state fire marshal’s inspections entail.

One violation in the state fire marshal’s most recent report notes the day care’s fire alarm system was overdue for its annual inspection, which was last done in October 2023. A spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether this inspection includes carbon monoxide detection or how often the office inspects day care facilities with DHHS licenses.

Kittery’s code enforcement office issued a certificate of occupancy on Aug. 24, 2023, certifying that five classrooms at Building Blocks were constructed in accordance with “all applicable codes and ordinances.” The document does not specify what exactly the code enforcement officer examined, but several of the codes listed on the office’s website include requirements that new and renovated buildings be outfitted with carbon monoxide detectors.

Town officials said the fire marshal’s office conducted Life Safety Code inspections at the site and that the state department — not the town — is responsible for code requirements relating to carbon monoxide detectors.

THE CONSTRUCTION SITE

Moss, from the fire marshal’s office, said last week that some detectors on the construction site had been covered up. The propane-powered saw is not supposed to be operated indoors, she said.

The business next to the day care is owned by a New Hampshire-based yoga studio, Humble Warrior Power Yoga, according to a permit from the town. The space is being renovated by NorthPoint Construction Management, according to a local building permit that a town spokesperson confirmed has since been placed on hold.

But according to Moss, the company also needed permission from the fire marshal’s office.

Gary Thomas, NorthPoint’s CEO, said in a brief phone interview Wednesday that his team has stopped working on the facility until the fire marshal’s office approves the state permit, which the company has since applied for. He declined to talk about the carbon monoxide leak and what spurred it.

The studio owner did not return a request for comment on Wednesday.

The Kittery permit was taped to the window of the future yoga facility on Tuesday afternoon, which looked tidy with what appeared to be newly placed bricks, an open ceiling and disconnected ducts.

One man from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration office, which conducts workplace inspections, was on site in a fluorescent green vest to speak to one man inside the building, who identified himself as a builder and declined to speak with a reporter. Thomas said no one from his company, nor any subcontractors, was at the site Tuesday.

A spokesperson for OSHA did not return requests for more information Wednesday.