Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-03-06
Superintendent Christensen Mod
flies Chief Clerk Iudd's Inter
view Printed Yesterday.
THE BOILER ROOM QUESTION,
or the 81 buildings in All But Eight
The Furnace Is Located Outside
The Main Structure.

buildings, and in all but eight the fur
mace and boiler rooms are located m
departments outside the main struc-
ture. In all of them the walls are OF
brick and the floors cement. making
even the building encountered with the
heating apparatus almost ilre-prool.
These statements are given OUT ny
supt Christensen today that the pub-
lie may not be misled as to the real
conditions surrounding the pupils OF
the city schools while they are at
study.
AS to the matte. OF fire drills, there
are no stated periods for sneh az %
let the children know when they mIsnt
expect a sounding of the gong Woulu
be TO defeat the very purpose LOT Wnicn
the practise was Instituted. Sometimes
as often as twice week the children
are exercised In drills, and maybe .le
following week not onee. But II IS PC
lieved that the custom is tolloWea wiz,
sufficient frequency that the eApeSteu
results may be realized. Every school
has its drills.
Instances are numerous as going to
show that fire drills are effective in
actual emergency as well as mere eN-
ercIse. In his annual report to Inc
board of education, Supt. Christensen
draws attention to the fire that occur
red in the Waterloo school ABOUT 81 year
ago. The blaze was noticed by wo-
man living in the neighborhood and the
principal was promptly notified. By
the time the gong was sounded smoke
filed the building, but tho chiidren
adhered strictly TO orders, FORMED III
marching lines and there was not q
single break from the ranks until the
outer doors had been cleared by the
rear pupils.
AS TO the complaint made OF the
locking of spiral IRE escapes during
school hours. by the janitors the school
officials say that no such cases nave
| been reported. 1t Is customary TO nave
the escapes locked between the closing
of schools on Friday afternoon and the
opening on Monday. This becomes
necessary because hoodlums make the
escape constant scene of capers If
| they can get inside of it, and there Is
| no need of leaving the apartment UNI
| locked when no pupils are in the school
! room. And further, in case an escape
| should be found locked when needed,
| the first person sliding down the spiral
would open it, as the lock is designed
not to resist pressure from the inside,
| and the door readily opens at the least
| weight against IL from within.
FIRST DRILL FOR THREE YEARS,
To see that its quota of children can
escape from such catastrophes as that
which overlook the pupils in Cleveland
| last Sunday the Salt Lake high school
| yesterday participated in a fire drill.
1t was the first fire drill for three
| wears. as the practise was discontinued
| because students on one fine day took
advantage of their freedom to make
nature study day of it in the foothills.
The drill yesterday resulted in the
buildings being emptied within four
Al N
out so that tanning of Railways would
| have been impossible. The seniors,
| from the first floor of the main build
| ing were out in 80 seconds. Two min
utes brought the juniors from the third
floor, and two and a half minutes wero
consumed in letting out the freshmen
and sophomores.
DEATH AT LOWELL.
Fire practise in the public schools
| was formerly common. At the Lowell
| school in 1894. young girl died of
fright during one drill, weak heart
receiving too great shock on the
Changing of the bells. In the Franklin
In 1881 Just before the completion of
the present building, a panic ensued
OH account of an alarm of fire, which
afterwards was found to have resulted
from a boy falling into cataleptic mt
and another boy rushing for water to
throw on him, which still third boy
in hallway noticed, and cried lire.
Miss Dukes. now of the high school.
had charge of the most frightened stu
dents In that case, and only by the
most heroic measures did she prevent
a real catastrophe In the rush for tho
doors On several occasions slight fires
I'm city school buildings have resulted
in quick service for the fire drill, and
the successful emptying of the build
ings without panic or stampede.
Menace at Farmington--A corre-
spondent from Harrington, Davis
county, calls attention to condition
which he says menaces the school
children in too many of the country
schools. lie says:
ut is enough to make ono shudder
to step into the hallway of a two or
three-story schoolhouse, and listen to "a
roaring fire in thief urnace immediate-
~ under the only stairway leading to
the upstair rooms filed with children.
But lire escapes will now, no doubt,
soon be Installed In most II not all
such school rooms. IL Is presumed thar
all the front doors of schoolhouses are
now arranged to open outwards. but II
Is a fact that many OF the back doors
swing inside, and, In case a fire be-
gins, as the Ohio school fire did. near
the front door. the back door might
inst rs well be locked, for all the
good II would amount TO- IL a crowd OF
frightened children should jam against
H..
ut is very evident that new laws
need TO be passed, or else old ones en-
forced. In regard to fire escapes, wide
doors and stairways, and banlshing tho
roaring furnace from underneath the
pshooI mr. mating rooms -