L.A. SLOW TO UNBOLT FIRE TRAPS AT SCHOOLS.Byline: Greg Gittrich Daily News Staff Writer Despite the potential for tragedy, officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. have failed to comply with a 14-month-old state requirement for security grilles on portable classrooms to have latches to let children escape in a fire. And city firefighters only now are conducting inspections that could speed up the process. ``We have so many schools that are affected by the new law, so we needed to come up with a plan of action,'' said Capt. Gary Clark Gary C. Clark (born May 1, 1962 in Radford, Virginia) is a former professional American Football wide receiver who played for the Washington Redskins (1985-1992), Phoenix Cardinals (1993-1994) and Miami Dolphins (1995) in the National Football League. , in charge of school and church inspections for the Los Angeles Fire Department The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), also known as the Los Angeles City Fire Department to distinguish it from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles. . School board member Julie Korenstein, who spearheaded the safety reform after the problem was disclosed in the Daily News, wonders why it is taking so long to install the new, safer grilles. ``We told the district last year to move immediately to ensure all the portables have breakout grilles,'' she said. ``We assumed that had been done.'' An article in March 1998 brought attention to the potential hazards of immovable security grilles. At the time, thousands of the grilles were being installed at Los Angeles schools The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. with $14 million from the Proposition BB bond issue. After reading the article, Korenstein demanded a moratorium A suspension of activity or an authorized period of delay or waiting. A moratorium is sometimes agreed upon by the interested parties, or it may be authorized or imposed by operation of law. on the grille grille, in architecture, a system of bars, usually of decorative metalwork, forming an openwork barrier or enclosure. In its usual materials of wrought iron or bronze, it has been favored for decorative treatment in all periods. installation, and the school board called for an interior safety latch and one breakaway break·a·way adj. 1. Designed to break, bend, or fall apart easily upon impact, especially to create an illusion, as with a theater prop, or for safety, as with a highway sign or barrier. 2. window grille in any portable classroom with only one door. The California Health and Safety Code was changed two weeks later to require that classrooms have at least two escape routes from fire or other danger. The fire code requires an interior safety latch on the window farthest from the door in each one-door classroom built after Jan. 1, 1990, without sprinklers and with bars over every window. Before the code was changed, only one exit was required in a classroom with fewer than 50 students. As of last week, interior safety latches had been installed at only 42 schools where they are needed, said Julie Krum, director of the district maintenance and operations branch. Of the district's 4,460 portable classrooms, about 1,700 have only one door and will require a breakaway grille, Krum said. Safety vs. vandalism Unknowingly risking the welfare of children, district officials were concerned about vandalism and burglaries when they ordered grilles bolted to the window frames of portable classrooms at 102 campuses to protect classroom equipment. After changing the policy, the board set aside $500,000 for the repairs. Each window costs about $750 to retrofit ret·ro·fit v. ret·ro·fit·ted or ret·ro·fit, ret·ro·fit·ting, ret·ro·fits v.tr. 1. To provide (a jet, automobile, computer, or factory, for example) with parts, devices, or equipment not in . Maintenance workers began to double back to retrofit the grilles bolted to exterior window frames last April. ``We were doing the retrofitting, but we also were continuing to install grilles at other campuses because of serious concerns about vandalism,'' Krum said. Last year the district lost an estimated $5.16 million to vandalism, fire, burglary, graffiti and theft. That loss was down from $5.82 million the previous year. Inspectors for the Los Angeles County Fire Department Not to be confused with Los Angeles Fire Department. The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), serves unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, as well as 58 cities and towns that choose to have the county provide fire and EMS services, including the City of La have started issuing citations for code violations at district schools outside city limits, Krum said. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Korenstein, no additional grilles will be installed until classrooms are retrofitted to meet code requirements. As an added safety measure, principals may request breakaway grilles in other classrooms where they believe them necessary, she said. Firefighters under gun The immovable grilles were approved by the state architect and city fire inspectors. City firefighters were still following the old code until the first week of May, when calls from concerned citizens tipped them off to the changes in the California Health and Safety Code. Inspectors plan to continue normal inspection schedules across the district, rather than try to tackle the grille problem in one swoop swoop v. swooped, swoop·ing, swoops v.intr. 1. To move in a sudden sweep: The bird swooped down on its prey. 2. . ``We will have a list of schools and addresses where they have portables and will make checks as in the past. There will not be any kind of task force sweep to do this,'' Clark said. ``It's going to take some time to check all the schools, but we will apply the stringent code. We're going to do everything to ensure the children are safe.'' He said city fire inspectors plan to follow the new code to the letter, but will not issue citations to the schools if district workers continue diligent efforts to comply. Citations carry maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. ``This is not an adversarial ad·ver·sar·i·al adj. Relating to or characteristic of an adversary; involving antagonistic elements: "the chasm between management and labor in this country, an often needlessly adversarial . . . type of relationship,'' Clark said. ``They know what has to be done, and they're working to retrofit the windows.'' CAPTION(S): photo PHOTO A latch inside a security grille can be used to escape out a window. David R. Crane/Daily News |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion