Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-02-08
STATE BUILDINGS
TO Be FIRE PROOF
PURPOSE OF BILL NOW BEING
DRAFTED.
MANY PUBLIC FIRE TRAPS
Chadbourne Hall and other University
Structures Dangerous State Pub.
lie School at Sparta a Nest of Fire
Traps--Home for Feeble Minded
Best Equipped.

To provide for the erection of none
but fire proof buildings by the state IS
| the purpose of a bill now being draft.
ed at the suggestion of certain mem
bers of the state board of control
The necessity for such a Law is not a
new discovery. The Importance of ii
| has been emphasized by the generai
agitation all over the United States
for better protection against fire in all
public buildings since the disastrous
fire in the Troquois theater in Chicago,
An investigation conducted by those
interested in the proposed bill has dis
closed condition involving danger to
human life and possible loss of state
property which is little less than ap-
palling. Not a 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 infiamable 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 a measure the same danger.
On the same basis ali the buildings OF
the charitable and penal institutions.
valued at about $3,500,000, and the uni
versity buildings, valued at a little less
than S2,000,000, 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 Iegisla-
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 un-
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 a general construction
which makes them highly infamabie.
The state hospital for the insane at
Mendoza Is still covered in part by a
single roof. The same is true OF
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 fol
| 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 wipec
out by fire starting in any one o.
them. The board has done what it