Fire Hazards Found At 2 City Schools |
City and public school officials Wednesday said two local elementary schools have some of the same fire hazards as a Chicago parochial school in which 89 students and three nuns perished in a fire Dec. 1. |
But the officials hastened to add that corrective measures had been scheduled at the two schools long before the Chicago blaze. |
The chief city building inspector and administrative assistant of operations and maintenance for city public schools, said the two schools are old elementary schools. |
Both schools have wooden floors and do not have enclosed stairwells. Plans have been drawn for both buildings, however, to enclose the stairwells, said the administrative assistant. |
Three local officials, the school Administrative Assistant of Operations and Maintenance, the head of the Fire Prevention Bureau, and the Building Department supervisor, recently visited the scene of the Chicago fire as an aid in making recommendations that might further protect local school children from the hazard of a school fire. |
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The three men have written reports on their Chicago observations which were expected to be in the hands of their immediate supervisors late Wednesday. |
The building department supervisor, while not disclosing the nature of his report, said Tuesday he personally believed the loss of life in Chicago would not have been nearly as great if that school had had enclosed staircases. He said the floors at the Chicago school were also oil soaked and were covered by asphalt tile which undoubtedly caused the blaze to spread more rapidly. |
The administrative assistant said Wednesday the local school district had not used any type of oil cleaning compound on its floors for years. |
The reports of the three officials may lead to a restudy of fire safety provisions incorporated in the physical structures of the school system, including local parochial schools. |
“It's not a question of improving fire drills,” the head of the fire prevention bureau said, “because surprise tests have shown us that any school can be evacuated in two minutes.” |
The school system has spent $500,000 in the past five years installing corridor firewalls and enclosing stairwells. |