Boston Representatives at Hearing on Proposed School Fire Bill

Boston Representatives at Hearing on Proposed School Fire Bill

The bill for the better protection of school children from fire, on which a hearing was given last week before the legislative committee on mercantile affairs, was opposed as unnecessary and too expensive by Michael H. Corcoran of the Boston school committee; Joseph B. Lomasney, schoolhouse commissioner; representatives of Phillips Andover Academy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Perkins Institution for the Blind and various city and town officials throughout the state. State Commissioner of Education Snedden, Fire Prevention Commissioner O’Keefe, and representatives of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, numerous improvement associations, underwriters, firemen and labor unions favored the measure, using as their most effective argument a fear of a repetition of the Peabody school disaster. The bill would provide that in school buildings exceeding one story in height, the ceilings of the basement shall be covered with metal lath and cement plaster; all spaces under walls and partitions over girders and around stairways would be fire-stopped with brick in mortar and self-closing fire doors would be installed at the top or bottom of each stairway leading from the basement to the floor above. Corridors leading to two or more exits would be divided by a crosspartition equipped with self-closing double doors in order to minimize the danger from smoke in the corridors. The building commissioner in Boston would enforce the law in that city, and the chief of the state police in other cities and towns. Representative Odlin, of Lynn, a member of the committee, pointed out that the bill did not apply to parochial schools. The proponents agreed that the bill should be changed so that it would apply to them, Fire Prevention Commissioner O’Keefe stated that the bill had the support of the parochial schools so far as he knew. Mr. O’Keefe said Boston should not be exempted from the provisions of this bill. Any city that comes before you and savs that it has sufficient authority to undertake these improvements, testifies to its own condemnation. Chairman Corcoran of the Bos ton school committee, in opposing the bill said : "There has not been a single life lost in a Boston school house fire in the past 100 years. The city is takine care of its school children and should not be further burdened by the proposed legislation.

The bill for the better protection of school children from fire, on which a hearing was given last week before the legislative committee on mercantile affairs, was opposed as unnecessary and too expensive by Michael H. Corcoran of the Boston school committee; Joseph B. Lomasney, schoolhouse commissioner; representatives of Phillips Andover Academy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Perkins Institution for the Blind and various city and town officials throughout the state. State Commissioner of Education Snedden, Fire Prevention Commissioner O’Keefe, and representatives of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, numerous improvement associations, underwriters, firemen and labor unions favored the measure, using as their most effective argument a fear of a repetition of the Peabody school disaster. The bill would provide that in school buildings exceeding one story in height, the ceilings of the basement shall be covered with metal lath and cement plaster; all spaces under walls and partitions over girders and around stairways would be fire-stopped with brick in mortar and self-closing fire doors would be installed at the top or bottom of each stairway leading from the basement to the floor above. Corridors leading to two or more exits would be divided by a crosspartition equipped with self-closing double doors in order to minimize the danger from smoke in the corridors. The building commissioner in Boston would enforce the law in that city, and the chief of the state police in other cities and towns. Representative Odlin, of Lynn, a member of the committee, pointed out that the bill did not apply to parochial schools. The proponents agreed that the bill should be changed so that it would apply to them, Fire Prevention Commissioner O’Keefe stated that the bill had the support of the parochial schools so far as he knew. Mr. O’Keefe said Boston should not be exempted from the provisions of this bill. Any city that comes before you and savs that it has sufficient authority to undertake these improvements, testifies to its own condemnation. Chairman Corcoran of the Bos ton school committee, in opposing the bill said : "There has not been a single life lost in a Boston school house fire in the past 100 years. The city is takine care of its school children and should not be further burdened by the proposed legislation.