WESTFIELD – City firefighters inspected all Westfield School District buildings last week to ensure that a safe environment will greet students Thursday when the new academic years begins.
Deputy Chief Pat Egloff, the department’s fire prevention officer, said the annual inspections are performed to identify safety hazards that, while apparent to firefighters, most people, including teachers, do not recognize.
“We work directly with the state Fire Marshal’s Office to make sure the school buildings are safe for our kids,” Egloff said this morning. “We started last week doing the inspection and will have to return to ensure safety issues we identified have been addressed.
Most of the issue identified were minor, although the fire prevention team did find a fire exit at the Westfield Vocational Technical High School that needs immediate remediation.
The safety inspectors will require that cloth hangings, including curtains, which are not fire rated by the National Fire Protection Association, be removed.
“There was a lot of stuff hanging from the ceilings in classroom by fishing line and yarn which, especially in non-sprinklered buildings, can be a wick to the ceiling,” Egloff said. “We told them they could use wire instead.
“Any cloth that is not fire rated by the NFPA has to be removed,” Egloff said. “I know that many teachers spend their own money for curtains and hangings trying to create an environment that is conducive to learning, but my job is life safety.”
Egloff said that curtains and wall hangings can be sent out for treatment with a fire retardants and certified as fire-rated.
“The state is putting more emphasis on these existing codes,” Egloff said. “that a lot of teachers don’t know about, so there is a learning curve.
Egloff, Fire Chief Mary Regan and School Superintendent Suzanne Scallion recently met to discuss fire safety and fire prevention procedures.
“The Superintendent is very safety conscious,” Egloff said. “This whole process is to keep our kids safe.”
