Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-02-06
STATE BUILDINGS
TO Be FIRE PROOF
PURPOSE OF BILL NOW 6EsNo
DRAFTED.
MANY PUBLIC FIRE TRAPS
Chadbourne Hall and Other University
Structures Dangerous-State Pup'
lie School at Sparta Nest OF Fire
Traps-Home for Feeble Minded
Best Equipped.
Madison. Feb. 9.

To provide for the erection OF none
but fire proof buildings by the state IS
the purpose of bill now being draft
ed at the suggestion of certain mem
bers of the state board Of controi.
The necessity for such a law is not
new discovery. The Importance OF 1t
has been emphasized by the general
agitation all over the United States
for better protection against fire in all
public buildings since the disastrous
fire in the IroQuois theater in Chicago.
An investigation conducted by those
interested in the proposed bill has dis
closed a condition involving danger to-
human life and possible loss of state
property which is little less than APP
palling. Not single one of the
states buildings at the charitable and
penal institutions is absolutely fire
proof and there are only two of the
university buildings which are not as
highly inflamable as the ordinary old
style office or store building. The
lives of all the $500 inmates of the
various state institutions are endan-
gered by this condition. Likewise the
100 women students rooming in Chad
bourne hall of the University of Wis
consin are in peril. In addition TO
this every student at the university
who attends classes in any of the old
ramshackle buildings on the campus,
shares in measure the same danger.
On the same basis all the buildings or
the charitable and penal institutions,
valued at about $3,500,000, and the uni
versity buildings, valued at little less
than 100000, are in danger of de-
struction by fire.
In speaking of the subject yesterday,
Allan D. Conover, member of the
state board of control. said.
THE situation is little less than ap-
palling. 1t is a legacy which has been
left the state by former boards of re-
gents and boards of control which have
not had the courage to ask the legisla-
ture for sufficient appropriations to
permit the erection of fire proof build
ings. Outside of the cell wings of the
prisons, the state has no buildings UNI
der the care and charge of the board
of control which are fire proof. Some
of the buildings are nothing but old
fire traps. Some are a little better,
but not at all what they should be.
The buildings, for the most part, have
wooden joist and studding, lath and
plaster, and general construction
which makes them highly intlamabis.
The state hospital for the insane at
Mendoza is still covered in part by a
Sc fVr1n ~
other buildings. The state school for
the deaf at Delavan, the home for the
feeble minded at Chippewa Falls, the
northern hospital for the insane at
Oshkosh and the state school for de-
pendent children at Sparta, all are in
bad shape. The home for the feeble
minded is perhaps the best quipped for
fire protection Of any of them, but it is
not fire proof by any means The
school for dependent children at
Sparta is nothing less than a nest OF
fire traps. Most Of the cottages there
where babes and children are housed
are OF brick veneer and could be wiped
out by fire starting in any one of
them. The board has done what it
could to remedy this condition, but has
been limited by the small appropria.
lions allowed by the legislature.
Ladies hall at the university is an
other fire trap. When the hall was
rebuilt at a cost of $4,000, it should
have been made fire proof, but the
smallness of the appropriation would
not permit. In my opinion the state
| is badly in need Of law providing
that hereafter all state buildings shall
be as nearly fire proof as modern sci
ence can make them. This policy is
followed in Iowa and Minnesota H.
should be apparent to any one, in the
! light of what has Happened during the
last few years at asylum fires that the
states wards should be housed in fire
proof buildings"