FOR THE CHILDREN'S SAKE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 81, 14 March 1931, Page 6

FOR THE CHILDREN'S SAKE

ALLEGED LACK OF EXITS IN SCHOOL BUILDINGS EARTHQUAKE DISCLOSURES At, the moiiuily m~'iing of the Stratford Technical High School Foard of Governors last night Mr. Chris. Moore, reporting on bis inspection of buildings in the devastated Napier district, said that what had struck him very forcibly was that the board should :•; ;:ko some recommendation to the educational authorities to make provision in the future building of schools for escape doors for the children. In main C - children met in a passagewvv. '. .v.found at Napier that in toe ■,:.::' . quake the copings had fallen on the children. They had to go through the passages to the exits. In planning scliords i hey should provide for an escape aoor as in theatres' lire escapes. He mentioned that those children who were kept in on the first shock provided ' most of the casualties, as in the second shock they were caught in the passages and were buried in the falling debris. It behoved the designer of buildings to do away with copings and over-hang-ing copings. In one case of a twostoreyed building some masonry weighing' 65 tons fell forward in a. heap. The bricklayers were blamed in some quarters for a lot of the damage, but in. his opinion the designer should shoulder some of the blame. In school designs for the future there should be provision for the safety of the children in the way of means for speedy exit instead of having to run the risk of being crowded in the passages.