Poland, we have a problem.

The town’s fire chief has identified serious problems with the new combined School Union 29 administrative office and Poland bus dispatch center.

As the Sun Journal’s correspondent Emily Tuttle reported Wednesday, the public building, which is still under construction, needs a fire alarm system. Fire Chief Willie Rice also found that the office buildings’ windows aren’t large enough for an escape if there’s a fire in the building.

Poland selectmen recognized the potentially dangerous problems, but did not approve a change order for the contractor that would add more than $18,000 to construction costs. Instead, they plan to put the addition of the fire alarms out for bid, hoping to reduce the financial impact.

As long as the building has an appropriate fire alarm system before occupation, it makes sense to open the addition to competitive bids, with the understanding that it might be more expensive to retrofit the alarms than it would be to install them during the initial construction.

Like Selectman Steve Robinson, we are amazed that the fire alarms weren’t included in the first place. They should have been.

As Robinson asked: “How can you have a public building without smoke and fire alarms when a residential home has to have one?” That’s a great question.

The building plans omitted fire alarms because current codes don’t require them, Code Enforcement Officer Art Dunlap said. And, according to the town manager, the state fire marshal signed off on the design.

The code should be changed, and the fire marshal should face tough and immediate questions about how a public building could be OK’d without fire alarms.

Alarms help protect life and property. They should be part of the plan for any public building.