Schools Opened in Late 1920’s early 1930’s Fire Alarms and Other Safety Systems Never Updated and Were Still Operating in 2002

By Nick Markowitz Jr.
Fire Investigator

One of my clients, which has several day schools for at risk students they run, has recently expanded and was looking for recently closed old schools that they could move their program into with minor upgrades. They are licensed as Private academy’s with endorsements for special education and emotionally disturbed. They found several different schools that despite being old were in move in condition and were still in operation all the way up to 2002.

One of the schools I walked through on initial inspection to see what work we would have to do was last used as a Catholic High School built in the early 30’s over top of what was the original church. I expected to find an updated older fire system and some type of emergency lighting. I found none. What I did find was 1 pull station per floor that activated a 120-volt ac horn. There was no panel or supervision like most older fire systems. There were no emergency lighting and no lighted exit signs, in fact no exit signs. This despite the fact the school held 100 high school students. The first floor was all wood doors with wooden opening transoms and wooden floors and wooden fire doors with the prohibited glass with chicken wire in it. No sprinklers with an attached convent with combustible stairway and no fire doors built exactly like the Lady of our Angels school in Chicago, which resulted in 60+ deaths when it caught fire. I checked with the AHJ of this 3rd class city and asked him how could such a school with no safety systems possibly been open in today’s world?

The answer, the building was grandfathered and no improvements were needed that could be enforced by code because no major renovations had taken place. What about fire drills, would they not have to activate the fire alarm? Apparently they did fire drills and used the classroom change bell because when I tried to open the old glass break system to test one none of them would open. Obviously the AHJ left this building alone all these years and never required any regular inspections leaving it up to the nuns and God to make sure the school was safe. There were fire hose cabinets with old brass nozzles and completely dry rotted hoses and a couple of old water tip over extinguishers. I thought to myself how could such a place exist in 2001? It was like I was walking into a school that was ready to open in 1935.

When I went down to the cafeteria /assembly room of course the usual electrical horrors too which were quickly corrected. Needless to say the old equipment was replaced and upgraded with smoke detectors added to the system and ABC extinguishers because of concern for the students welfare as these children are troubled and need much more supervision than public school students.

I then ended up at an old public school that was built in 1927. No sprinklers existed and had its ceilings lowered and new heating and cooling installed above it. The school was being used for a young children’s head start program. Again I found an old Edwards AC type panel, which was not working and had been turned off. 1 pull station and bell on the bottom floor and 2 bells and pull stations on the top and only battery smokes in each classroom. The construction was mostly masonry but floors were tile with wood sub flooring protected by plaster underneath mostly removed over the years now exposing the wood. Apparently every inspector for the state who walked through the school and approved the head start program and now ours never said anything about the non-functioning fire alarm. Again I will upgrade the building systems but again after checking codes all they need is the existing pulling stations to work and nothing else. The ceilings and heating system that was installed did not appear inspected because there are serious code violations in how the work was done and the firewalls breached, and no automatic fire dampers installed with combustible Styrofoam exposed. Then again maybe it was by an inspector with blinders on. Our school was allowed in and given an occupancy permit despite the fact the work has not been completed. Again some code officer just rubber stamped the occupancy permit and never did a field inspection. NFPA 72 codes clearly require existing fire systems to be operational and can only be turned off and removed with written permission of the AHJ.

In a another school which was built in the 50s we had an older supervised AC panel and pull stations at every exit including one in the boiler room. Apparently one had to be in every boiler room as part of the state code and panels had to be PA State approved as well NFPA 72 fire alarm codes had not as yet come about. It appears at some point the codes changed because schools built during the 50s did away with wood construction and transoms and required supervised fire systems with more pull stations and bells and lighted exit signs and emergency lighting usually a generator but did not require older 20’s, 30’s, 40’s schools to upgrade. In this school, a contractor installed smokes and horn strobes but old pull stations did not work and old bells were left in place. I got all the old pull stations to work and removed the old bells as required by code as any fire equipment not in use per NFPA 72 is required to be removed to not give the public the perception it is still in operation. But again we did not have to upgrade the system it was operational.

Now compare this to most modern public schools with full sprinklers and automatic fire systems. Seems to me something is drastically wrong when we can send children both public and private to school in buildings with the best of everything to practically nothing. It appears we have not learned lessons from the past yes the horrific fire that killed so many nuns and children in Chicago could happen today in 2005 in this very state. I recently inspected some apartment buildings where one of my clients has older at risk youths living to get ready to be released at age 18 to the working world. Again it is the same old story, just battery smokes in each bedroom and hall and an exstinguisher. No fire resistant furnishings, not even battery smokes or emergency lighting or exit signs in main halls. No central fire alarm system connected to fire dept like where they were first staying at a younger age on campus. And the state and welfare agencies that walk through required nothing else. They are much safer at the campus than they are in this apartment building. I called the local AHJ to inquire about codes. He did not know the students were even there, but again there were no codes he could enforce or require. The buildings did not have to have to be upgraded like many were under the Pa Fire and Panic Act because the community was under BOCA codes at the time that did not require fire systems in apartment buildings under 4 stories. Some BOCA communities like Mt Lebanon and Monroeville required the systems and adopted the Pa. Fire and Panic Act as well as BOCA. But even in these communities the school boards have fought any recommendation to upgrade their fire systems. They did not even want to tie their alarms in so they could be monitored. Can you imagine schools holding all the children they do and not at least tying the system into monitoring? They said it was too expensive. I presented to code officials in Monroeville in the early 80’s it was not very expensive and easily done at the time as I had already tied in many commercial building fire systems to the emergency center which were of the older AC type.

Unlike other school districts I service which have upgraded all their systems, which are monitored, they have even added AED units . When are we going to wake up in this state and start taking action and stop grand fathering school buildings and other high risk structures? We lost 100 + lives in a Rhode Island club fire last year needlessly.

We have the knowledge, we have the technology to prevent major tragedy's, and we have a new state wide building code in place which is a start to set at least minimum standards. What do we have but greedy self interest fools who want to repeal it? Maybe when these fools lose a child or relative in a needles tragedy maybe then they will get the point. The time bomb is ticking, do you want to be the AHJ that answer’s to a board of inquiry why you did not act to prevent a tragedy? I was just following the code is not an adequate answer.

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