A 3-ALARM FIRE BURNED IN THE SHELTON, CONNECTICUT, HIGH SCHOOL Tuesday afternoon. The fire began in a second-floor storage closet and extended through some ductwork and pipe chases into the 3rd and 4th floors.
The fire involved a newly-built wing that was part of a $25 million renovation completed earlier this year and was noteworthy because the city failed to follow the state fire code which mandates sprinklers in classrooms that have no windows.
Firegeezer reported on November 15 HERE about this disregard for fire safety where we wrote:
New Haven tv station WTNH did an earlier report on this and the school officials seem to be running from the problem instead of addressing them. Specifically, the new addition has several classrooms without windows or any emergency egress to the outside. Code calls for these areas to be sprinklered. But Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti tried to downplay the shortcoming and stated: “I do know there are very few incidents that occur in a building like that. There is not much that can burn other than paper and people, some electrical components. Fortunately we have dodged any bullet that may have come in that regard.”
Not only is the mayor on the hot seat, but also the city fire marshal who claimed that the city had received a waiver from the state for the sprinklers. When confronted with the fact that they did not have a waiver, he then said that the code doesn’t require sprinklers. WTNH-TV Ch. 8 New Haven has been following this strange sequence and filed this video report on Oct. 30:
The fire marshal of neighboring Milford, who in fact wrote that section of the fire code, refuted that claim and pointed out the law in the code book for this tv report that was aired just six days ago:
The New Haven Register has the story on Tuesday’s fire HERE.
The Connecticut Post has a related story about some rescues required in the biology laboratory HERE.
