What the TEE report found

The Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE) has issued a report on the gas installations at the Gravas school complex in Athens, according to Kathimerini, which first published its findings. Inspections carried out from 17 to 19 October identified serious safety gaps, most notably a gas leak detection system that was out of service in one of the two boiler rooms. The report also finds that the installations do not match the approved studies and that mandatory safety rules were not observed. The complex had halted in-person classes after complaints about a gas smell. No active leak was found during the checks, but the report does not rule out that one occurred earlier.

Boiler rooms and pipework

In the first boiler room the heating pipes run through the basement and there is no fire-resistant door. The second, larger boiler room houses electrical installations alongside the boilers and connects to an underground corridor that runs through the complex without a watertight separation. The report explicitly recommends separating the two spaces. A section of network that the study places underground, with welded joints, was found in an open manhole with threaded connections and without the required anti-corrosion protection. The central boiler room has a pipe that the study shows as underground polyethylene, but which was reportedly installed externally in steel.

Of seven welds sampled across the network, one did not meet the minimum technical specifications, and the report calls for every weld to be checked. The strength and tightness tests were described as acceptable.

Interventions and open questions

The report proposes six interventions for one boiler room and eight for the other, but it does not reach a conclusion on the source of the smell. Accounts of the manual gas shut-off differ. NEWS 24/7 and SKAI report that the manual system was not working, while in.gr reports that in one boiler room the central shut-off device was not in an accessible location and that the second had no handle. The second boiler room could not be inspected because construction work was under way. The report also calls for the design studies to be revised so that they show the installation as it stands today.

One boiler room6

Other boiler room8

One boiler room

6 interventions

Other boiler room

8 interventions

Data from the article text

Athens municipality reacts

The mayor of Athens, Charis Doukas, objected on Facebook to the report becoming public before the city had received it. He said the municipality had learned of the findings from Kathimerini and from a live broadcast in which the findings were commented on, and he accused unnamed parties of staging a communications show at the children's expense. He wrote:

“Up to now the Athens Municipality has not received any official document, despite our calls for so many days.”

As of that post, the city had no official copy of the report.