Fire Partitions In School Roofs Urged

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31753, 9 August 1968, Page 1

Fire Partitions In School Roofs Urged

As the Crown claimed exemption from most local by-laws, it would be prudent for its architects to use the New Zealand Standard Specification code as their yard stick, said the Chief Fire Officer of the Christchurch Fire Brigade (Mr L. R. Osmond) yesterday.

Mr Osmond was replying to a report by the chief architect of the Canterbury Education Board (Mr J. A. Bigg) in “The Press” yesterday. Mr Osmond had said at the fire which gutted two classrooms and damaged two others in a four-classroom block at Quinns Read School, that partitions extending above the ceiling to the apex of the roof would have confined the fire in the roof void and halved the damage. Mr Bigg said that the classroom block bad complied with all building codes and regulations. Mr Osmond said yesterday that fire-retarding partitions in the roof void of buildings such as that at the Quinns Road School were necessary. He was also concerned that the materials used for the wall lining In the classrooms was of such flammable type. The building was constructed in 1955 and the measurements of the roof void were 118 ft long by 27ft 6in wide, giving an area of 3245 sq. ft. Its roof cladding was of tiles and this allowed quick discharge of hot gases and smoke, said Mr Osmond. A New Zealand standard model building by-law promulgated in April, 1954, said that in all types of construction where a ceiling formed an enclosed roof-space, firebreaks should be provided in all roof-spaces so that any one area should not exceed 3000 sq. ft measured horizontally at ceiling level, and should be spaced not more than 70ft apart. . They might be constructed of approved framing lined on both sides with material having a fire-resistance rating of not less than half an hour, and should extend from the ceiling to the under side of the roof covering. The New Zealand Fibrous Plaster Association supported Mr Osmond in his contention that inside partitions in the school should have been made of fire resistant materials, said the president (Mr A. Young). Mr Young said that an in-

; spection yesterday of the ■ school showed him that there - was no plaster board lining i on the timber frame partitions between the rooms. , These partitions had obvlously not discouraged the ’ spread of the fire. “In my opinion the building is a fire hazard and so are many other ; schools in Christchurch,” he * said. Mr Young said that Mr I Bigg’s statement that timber frame partitions between the . rooms had plaster board that i .discouraged the spread of the . fire was not correct “I could see no sign of any ' plaster board partitions be- ’ tween the classrooms as i claimed by Mr Bigg,” he said. I “The partitions were made of • highly flammable soft board, t and plywood dados that ! would go up like a cracker > on Guy Fawkes night.”