Fire safety questions raised at North Point Mall

ALPHARETTA, Ga. - December of last year, while North Point Mall prepared for a busy Christmas season,

Mall contractors and a manager were discussing problems with the mall's fire alarm system.

Mike Hull was in the meeting and secretly recorded it. He was hired to install a fire alarm system for ten tenants in the mall. He also conducted an inspection of the mall's entire fire alarm system.

His October 2015 inspection report outlined a shopping list of problems. He wrote: "most of the mall notification devices not functional at time of testing."

Hull says, “That would mean the fire alarm wouldn't work, or would not work properly.”

While working at the mall, a smoke alarm went off at mall clothing store called Tilly's.   Hull says the mall's system is designed to automatically alert the fire department through a call center.  But it didn't.

“It didn't go off. Didn't dial. Didn't do anything,” says Hull.

A mall security officer smelled smoke and called 911. The fire department responded, but found no fire.

Alpharetta Fire Marshall David Morris says it bothers him that the smoke alarm didn't trigger the automatic emergency call, but says the fire code allows for a constantly staffed security center to make the call.

“We've seem to have corrected it since then,” says Morris, “not everything works 100 per cent of the time.

Hull says he was frustrated. He didn't think the mall was taking the problems seriously enough. So he took a dramatic step and filed an anonymous complaint with the State Fire Marshal. He told the state if a fire broke out and no one was there to see it, the mall's "alarm system would not alert the public."

Hull's complaint said a key part of the fire alarm system called Data Loop 2 was not working. Data Loop 2 connects the mall's main fire alarm panel to strobe lights, smoke detectors, horns and other safety devices throughout 1/3 of the mall.

“I filed it because I was afraid for people in there and this thing was not working,” says Hull.

The decision cost him his job and a lot of money. Hull says he was fired days after calling the state. 

The State Fire Marshal turned the complaint over to Alpharetta Fire Department on a Friday night. 

     The fire Marshall told us all the problems were fixed over the weekend and the system passed his inspection the next working day.

His inspector issued a report finding "no violations" concluding the fire alarm system worked "throughout the mall."

     The problem, according to Morris was

Data Loop 2 and it was fixed.

But one month after that inspection, during that secretly recorded meeting by Mike Hull, Mall contractors admitted they were still trying to fix Data Loop 2.

When shown the results of the meeting, Morris admitted:  “We knew there were troubles, so the report may be a little misleading. We didn't ignore it, we were working on it, we just didn't document it very well.”

North Point Mall’s general manager wrote us to say the last October "issues with the system were identified and corrective measures were timely and expeditiously taken."

He further wrote "North Point Mall is a safe place for our customers and a 24-hour 365-day security force is on site to continuously monitor the environment."