SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. (AP) – Officials told a rabbi Friday that he could no longer use a school bus retrofitted as an oven to bake matzos for next week’s Passover holiday.

Manny Carmona, Spring Valley’s deputy building inspector, issued a letter in the afternoon forbidding Rabbi Aaron Winternitz from using his contraption, which he says has been making matzos for his congregation for nearly three years.

“My department is not satisfied this oven is safe to use,” Carmona said. “He did as much as he could.”

The old, red-and-white bus had been converted into a supersized oven for Passover matzos – complete with a smokestack, exhaust fans and working fire.

Carmona ordered the rabbi earlier this week to move the bakery bus away at least 10 feet from the house. Winternitz was also told to disconnect the unauthorized gas line that was fueling the oven and come up with documents to show that a licensed engineer had overseen the project.

But in the end, Carmona judged any changes that had been made insufficient, and he issued the letter in advance of Passover’s start at sundown Monday.

Winternitz had been making the unleavened bread inside the school bus for his 50-member Congregation Mivtzar Hatorah for the past three Passovers. The bus was behind his house and was discovered by authorities after a neighbor complained of smoke last week.

Matzo is eaten during Passover week to illustrate how the Jews had no time to let their bread rise as they fled slavery in Egypt.