Means of Egress

We’ve all been there. It’s 4th period, fighting sleep admits our teacher’s best impersonation of an adult from Charlie Brown, when all is suddenly disrupted by the unapologetic blair of the fire alarm. A welcomed reprieve for student and teacher alike. Who doesn’t want fifteen minutes of fresh air and conversation. A chance to see your friends from different grades, or that one girl you’ll never talk to, who unexpectedly got hot over summer break. To most students the fire drill was less preparation for disaster and more pseudo social event. I know I never took them seriously. It was just something we periodically did; like scholastic book fairs or parent teacher night.

By the time I was a freshman in college fire drills were the furthest thing from my mind. It’s going to take a lot more than a literal false alarm to pull me away from this midnight Halo system-link we got going on here. Now while I was ignoring this drill intended to save my life so that I could shoot at digital people with my digital weapons, our country was on a real trajectory to marry these two scenarios.

The first time I heard of a “active shooter drill” I was in middle school, circa 1999. I’m sure it was buried in some mid-day punditry soon after the Columbine shootings. Although what happened in Colorado registered to me as a tragedy, most guys my age were more concerned with our hormones, and the aforementioned girl I never spoke to. The idea of practicing for an “active shooter” scenario in an American middle school seemed as far-fetched to me as a black president or losing my virginity. It wasn’t until a recent conversation with a close friend, who teaches in an elementary school, that I fully absorbed the meaning of “active shooter drill”. She lamented about spending her lunch period preparing for a drill scheduled for the next day. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, or how I was hearing it. She spoke of the drills with a sort of a flat disgust. She went on to tell me how local homeowners have been asked to help gather students on their lawns in the event of an emergency. She explained the new survival steps of run, hide, or fight — the GTA version of stop, drop, and roll. She even shared the gut wrenching plan of action if they were ever pinned down in the classroom. Imagine ten year old children pouring out of a second floor window like water from a burst pipe.

The reality of terrified children dying in an unspeakable and preventable tragedy is not new to the American psyche; it actually gave rise to the very fire drills I so gallantly dismissed in college. All those years of standing in a single file line waiting to be counted served a purpose greater than a break in the monotonous school day. This was regulation at work, government at its finest.

172 students suffocated or were burned alive during the Collinwood school fire in 1908. Aside from its stone facade much of the three story Ohio schoolhouse was constructed of wood. That day an overheating steam pipe ignited the floorboards and tragedy quickly followed. With no shortage of fuel smoke and flame consumed the school with alarming efficiency. Despite having been drilled on how to exit the schoolhouse in the event of an emergency, pandemonium took hold; hundreds of panicked children bottleneck the exits. As a result the majority of lives lost were at the front and rear exits. Remains were discovered in what rescuers described as walls of bodies.

The grisly nature of this tragedy left a lasting impact on the small Ohio town. In response existing building regulations and fire safety reforms were expanded locally. However nationally there was no mandate. The NFPA (National Fire Prevention Association) only had the power to investigate and make recommendations. Prior fire related disasters like the 1903 Iroquois theater fire that took the lives of 602 were the initial catalyst for such reforms. Panicked patrons, over crowding and non-distinct exits were to blame for that mass casualty event. Many post Collinwood reforms expanded on the lessons learned from Iroquois: continued fire drilling, occupancies limits and unobstructed exits remained the preparative best practices of the day. Preventative measures such as: fire proof piping, concrete flooring, and iron stair cases quickly became the norm of new construction.

According the the NFPA after the Collinwood fire there were seven more school fires that resulted in ten deaths or more. The majority of which were the result of some preventable mishap, some safety oversight or logistical failure. The last and most devastating was the Our Lady of Angels school fire in 1958. 95 lives were lost in that Chicago inferno, the large majority of them children. A full 50 years after the Collinwood tragedy history was repeating itself with. ghastly similarity. Another massive lost of little lives, a preventable tragedy worsened by inaction and willful ignorance.

Our Lady of Angels did not comply with a large numbers of safty regulations and recommendations of the time. Lessons learned from Collinwood and the six other subsequent fires were lost on Our Lady of Angels. A grandfather clause, exempted schools constructed before 1949 from having to retrofit for fire safty compliance. After a fire was started in the basement it burned unchecked and unnoticed for about 30 minute before evacuations began. Again a long list of failures lead to a massive loss of life. Many of the same issues that exacerbated the conditions at Collinwood still persisted at Our Lady of Angels. The brick facade served as the only none-wooden portion of the building. There was no heat detection apparatus no direct line of communication to fire department, and there was only one fire escape to service the entire building. With flames rising from the basement and ground floors occupants fled to the second floor for safely. Trapped and option-less many students took to jumping from the windows. The senselessness of this fire was captured perfectly by Percy BugBee, President of the NFAP who said “There are no new lessons to be learned from this fire; only old lessons that tragically went unheeded”. Scores of children whose lives were cut short in the very building that shaped their would be futures. Mothers who will never bare children, fathers who will never known the joy of witnessing mother and child. Farmers and inventors, poets and scientists whose contributes the world will never know. Hell, we may have lost the cure to cancer in the fire that day. All in all the biggest disappointment is the lack of a sufficient explanation for this tragedy, the best iv’e been able to discover is essentially “oops”. Everything about this fire was preventable; we as a nation just failed to act in time — although we did have 50 years.

Since Collinwood a litany of best practice and preventative measures had been implemented and consistently improved upon to ensure the safety of our schools. Fire escapes, sprinkler systems, fire alarms that directly connect the the local fire department, fire proof piping, fire proof doors, and a significant reduction in the use of wood in school construction just to name a few. Unfortunately in1958 these changes were not nationally mandated. In addition Grandfather clauses like the one in Chicago left hundreds of schools susceptible to tragedy at any moment.

If there is anything to be gained from the Our Lady of Angels fire it was the national outrage. This fire was covered nationwide and was even picked up by Life Magazine, highlighted by one of the more disturbing images of the time. A firemen removing the limp body of a deceased child from the rubble. Ten year old John Jajkowski, accordion player and choir boy, lay lifeless in the arms of a first responder. Mouth and nose covered in soot one can only image the horror of his last moments, the fear, the tears and screams; the unanswered prayers surrounding him like the thick black smoke that undoubtedly took his life. These thoughts and more were written all over the face of Richard Scheidt, the fireman seen carrying John out of the hell he died in. The brim of his hat resembling a halo we are left to hope John was finally safe and protected. This image served as the perfect catalysis for change (pun intended). Nationally school safely reforms were mandated. Fire prevention measures and building codes became the law of the land and we are better for it. Since the rolling reforms of 1958 there have been no school fires with more than ten deaths… None!

Now let’s fast forward to present day: fire drills, concrete stairwells, working fire exits and fire escapes all seem run of the mill. The idea of being harmed in a school fire is rarely if ever in the forefront of students minds. I’m sitting here today as the perfect example. Even when we smelled smoke in our college dorms, usually the result of an almost-adult learning tinfoil and microwaves are not compatible, we never felt fear. I was always confident in my escape. I was sure the building was safe and secure. Even in the event of a real emergency there were a multitude of contingencies in place to keep me and my friends alive. I felt safe, I felt comfortable; comfortable enough to completely ignore those alarms from time to time. In retrospect it took hundreds of lives to ensure my safety. It took an entire countries outrage and federal regulations facilitate my cavlier disposition. I consider myself lucky, my school days consisted of freeze tag and food fights, love-notes and “life changing” gossip. I learned how to fight and when to throw rocks at the girls I likcause you know, they love that shit. I never thought about the possibility of being burned alive or the possibility of being gunned down while trying to hide behind my desk. I never concerned myself with the structural soundness of the building I was in or the mental state of my peers. I got the chance to be a kid and I’m thankful for it.

Today there is a luxury of innocence that is lost on an entire generation. Active shooter drills are not a run of the mill activity. They are not fun little excursions outside to see your friends and get some fresh air. They are unfortunate and quite frankly disgusting reminders of the state of our union. Once a month we drag our students out of their classrooms in an attempt to prepare them for carnage in its truest form. We rack our brains trying to find palatable ways to explain the inexplicable to these young minds. A fire is a natural disaster of sorts, it’s a force of nature, the hand of God as some would say. Its destructive path although tragic can rationalized. The fire is consuming fuel — it’s just doing what fires do. We can either get out of its way or cut off its fuel source as a means of control. So what fuels the gunman?

We cannot completely control fire. Just as we cannot completely control the individual who decides to open fire in a school house. Schools across america are essentially fire proof. Fire codes and building regulations have resulted in zero school-fire retaliated mass casualties since 1958. Again thats zero with a “0". So what about our current situation can we actually control? We can retrofit our schools with bullet proof everything and let shooters run wild until help arrives. Or could make our schools even more prison-like with metal detectors and armed safty officers, which is already the case depending on your tax bracket. How about we just arm all. teachers and students; make gun-safty classes apart of a national curriculum #NoChildShotInTheBehind. Or would it be easier, cheaper, smarter to regulate the weapons?

We as a nation found a way to combat school fires, we knew what needed to be done. Although it took 50 years we did eventually get it right and have been better off ever since. What are we waiting for now, what new lessons are there for us to learn before we get off our asses and do something? How many schools must “burn”, how many children have to end their lives with fear and panic like John Jajkowski? How many grieving parents and presidents do we have to watch on primetime television before we actually notice? Maybe the press should force us to look at what we condone as they did in 1958 with the photo of little lifeless John, or again in 1965 with the footage of the violence in Selma. Do we really need to see an image of a bullet riddled body crawling out of a school window before we decide we’ve had enough?

… Oh wait

By, Marcus Williams (@cushkobain)

For (www.Inspe.co)