Cause for School Fire Determined

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Permalink Reply by Howard Chorpash on August 18, 2010 at 5:58pm

Real interesting reading the "comments" under the article. Sound like more investigating is needed, what a cluster. Some say students were staining the floor, no contractors. Some say the place had no sprinkler system, which should be code. Someone swore there was one, but taken out after a certain date. What a huge loss, luckily no one was hurt. You can bet parents will be on top of that like flies on sh_t.

Permalink Reply by Dale Rosilio on August 18, 2010 at 6:10pm

I think that there is some jumping to conclusions and rumours being tossed around in regards to "Kids" "staining" the floor. There may well have been young people "helping" with the process, but nothing I saw shows any facts to support the claim. The fire my very well have been created from onsite dust from the buffing process of VOC compliant floor finish with it's "Hotter" solvents. We had a small fire created on a gym floor we had been finishing many years ago when VOC finishes were just being introduced. We were buffing with a Sharplees dustless buffer that incorporates a cloth bag, we never had a reason to remove the bag from the machine as we never had an issue until this one time. Fortunately we smelled the smoke and removed the machine from the gym storage area before really damage happened.

Permalink Reply by Howard Chorpash on August 18, 2010 at 10:12pm

"Or is it that all we care about now are the millions of dollars of damage"

Exactly, Lives were at stake here.

Make a loong story short.....In 1974 my father( experienced installer) was spreading Henrys wood adhesive on the block walls of the basement, at our weekend cabin. He didn't have addequate ventilation, and a spark from the trowell ignited the room. The only air was up through a spiral staircase. Flames roared up through that thing like a torch. He got out , up through that staircase, suffering 3rd degree burns on 3/4 of his body. Spent the next 6 months in the burn ward. Lucky to be alive. Just had to tell that. This incident in Tucson freaked me out.

Permalink Reply by Stephen on August 18, 2010 at 10:18pm

I have almost seen rags ignite, turned around once for a few minutes to do something, rags were in a pile outside, humid, hot and started burning.

Vapors can do it just as easily. Remember the guy here who got blown through the ceiling of a building when building up a subfloor with tube adhesive a couple years ago?

Rut Roh....did you read that last comment? I think someone may be going to jail. lol

"Exist (11 total posts | +30 total karma)

8/14/2010 at 9:54PM

I interviewed at Compass High School a few weeks ago and saw personally that students WERE doing the work. Several even came in during my interview to deliver measurements to the owner of the school.

Why are these students working in a poorly ventilated environment where fumes from staining floors are building up so much that they can start a fire? How about how this affected the health of the students who were working for the school for the renovations?

Or is it that all we care about now are the millions of dollars of damage"