Eagle’s Aerie School on a Gilbert county island meets all of the state’s fire codes and laws — technically.

State law and the state’s fire marshal say the charter school is complying with all requirements — codes that are meant to prevent fires and ensure kids can safely escape, and fire personnel can quickly enter a structure in the case of a fire.

But there’s one major concern: The school has no official fire department to enter the up-to-code buildings if there is a fire.

The situation, and the fact that there is no requirement for public schools to have fire protection, is a cause for concern to some state and local officials.

“Whenever you’ve got a school with insufficient fire protection, that’s a concern for everybody,” said Jeanine L’Ecuyer, spokeswoman for Gov. Janet Napolitano. “And, certainly, the governor shares it. It once again underscores the urgency that we need to have with this, to get it done.”

The publicly funded charter school has found itself at the center of a controversy after the private Rural/Metro Fire Department stopped serving the area on Sept. 30, 2006.

The Gilbert Town Council has been clear on the town’s refusal to respond to any emergency in unincorporated areas — including the school — unless those areas annex and become part of the town.

For more than a year, the school’s primary fire protection has consisted of a green firetruck that school owner Tim Peak purchased from a state surplus auction. Painted on the truck: “Eagle’s Aerie Fire Dept.”

Peak, his transportation director and another employee are trained to use the truck if a fire occurs.

Peak points out Rural/Metro has agreed to respond to Gilbert county island emergencies, if its units are available, from its more distant Queen Creek and Pinal County stations. Gilbert officials are on record that if the town’s fire department mistakenly responds to a county island call, its fire crews will not fight the blaze, but will ensure no lives will be in danger. The town also said it will strive to ensure those inadvertent runs don’t happen.

Peak said the school opted not to be annexed after being led to believe its buildings would not be grandfathered into the town building code, which could restrict the school from making changes to structures or building additions in the future.

Peak said Gilbert should follow in the footsteps of neighboring Chandler, and do the “neighborly thing” of helping the school — either to grandfather it in and allow it to be annexed without problems or offer to provide fire protection to the kindergarten through 12th-grade school that has nearly 200 students who are Gilbert residents.

After all, Peak said, as a nonprofit, the school would not pay the town any property taxes for the fire service if it were to annex.

“If we had a fire and they came and put it out, our insurance company would pay the fees,” he said. “Our kids are out of the building within 30 to 45 seconds, if we had a building that did catch on fire. This is just kind of a quirk in a system that doesn’t exist in most other unincorporated county island areas.”

But Gilbert officials say they’re stunned the school is allowing its nearly 300 students to be in a situation where they rely on good luck and donated assistance from area agencies that don’t technically cover the school, instead of ensuring the school has a fire department that would be required to respond.

“Just buying a firetruck doesn’t mean they have fire protection,” Town Councilman Dave Crozier said. “I think they’re really exposing themselves to liability. Worse yet, they’re really providing a false sense of security to parents of students going there. It’s a shame because if something really does happen, somebody could get hurt thinking they’re protected and they’re not.”

State Fire Marshal Phil Meely said there is no state law ensuring or requiring that public schools have fire protection. State law lays out fire codes to allow fire personnel to access, and most important to allow kids to get out fast, he said.

“We focus on schools being fire safe and being prepared to have the children leave and be outside the building,” he said.

Whether there should be fire protection for area schools, Meely said, is “really a decision for the community. It’s my professional bias, of course, that everybody should have good protection.”

The governor’s office has also been keeping a close eye on the situation in Gilbert that left an estimated 4,500 unincorporated residents without fire coverage more than a year ago.

An ongoing dispute between county island residents who don’t want to be part of Gilbert and Gilbert officials who don’t want to share services with nonresidents also has raised eyebrows at the Legislature. Legislators last session passed a law allowing Gilbert county islanders to create a fire district in the absence of any other option.

Signatures are now being collected to create that district, which includes Eagle’s Aerie School. If Gilbert doesn’t bid to provide the service, in return for a new tax levy charged to property owners, it could be mandated to do so under the law.

But the earliest a fire district and fire protection could be provided would be in February.

Not all officials say the situation, which they acknowledge is unusual, is a cause for concern.

DeAnna Rowe, executive director for the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, said she’s been assured by Peak that the school is safe.

“My understanding from speaking with the school is they feel comfortable that they do have access from Rural/Metro and they also indicated that the Chandler Fire Department would respond as well,” she said. “So from the school’s perspective, they felt comfortable with the coverage they would have.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, whose office oversees charter schools, did not return calls for comment.