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This is Gerald Berry Jr., one of the architects on the new colony of the Angel School.

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Mr. Berry, as I understand it, the new school will not have a sprinkler system throughout as the new Chicago ordinance has called for.

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Why is that?

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The principal reason that this school doesn't have total sprinkling comes from the fact that it is a fire resistant structure

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provided by the city of Chicago's Class A.

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Sprinklers are provided in all unoccupied areas of the school.

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The boiler room, storage rooms, and the waste paper and incinerator rooms,

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but are not used in the classrooms or corridors or stair halls because they are normally occupied during the school day.

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This was approved by the city of Chicago when they approved the drawings of the building for construction.

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Well, has the city dispensed already the angels from putting in a complete sprinkler system as the new ordinance calls for?

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The building, as you see it here, was approved for construction without total sprinkling.

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Since the new ordinance was passed earlier this year.

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That's correct.

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Well, as I understand it, only about a dozen schools in Chicago have complied with the ordinance calling for sprinkling systems throughout.

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Now, will other schools be able to get by without putting in the sprinkling system also?

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I can't answer that question.

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Each school, I think, is a problem of itself and will have to be settled on its own merits.

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Mr. Berry, could you tell me what is being done to make this new alley of the Angel School safe from fire?

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The new Lady of Angel School is about the most fire-resistant structure that I know of.

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It's a building that is built completely of reinforced concrete.

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The walls, the floors, the structural framing system are all of the concrete variety.

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We have curtain wall construction here, which means that the exterior walls are of metal and glass.

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The classroom partitions...

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Mr. Berry, what is being done to make the new Lady of the Angel School safe from fire?

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I believe that the fire safety of this structure is rather apparent from the structure as you see it standing behind us.

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As you can see, all of the structural framing numbers are of reinforced concrete.

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The floor slabs, the ceilings are of reinforced concrete.

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At the time that the building will be completed, the interior walls will all be of concrete block painted with a fire-resistant paint.

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The trim is limited to non-combustible material.

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We have installed sprinkler, alarm, and detecting systems in all unoccupied areas, such as storage rooms, boiler rooms, waste paper storage, and incinerator rooms.

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We have the manual alarm system to give the alarm in case of fire or any other emergency requiring evacuation of the building.

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There will be fire alarm systems throughout the building?

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That's correct.

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And we have provided a number of stairways for vertical exits from the building so that there should be no reason that any student would be hampered in his egress from the building in case of an alarm.

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Will stairwells have fire doors?

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The stairwells will be enclosed by fire doors, and they will be totally fire resistant and are called fire towers in the terminology that we use,

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because they are totally isolated from the building and therefore provide safe exits from each floor.

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This school will be safe.

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The school will be extremely safe.

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Thank you.

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Now back to John in New York.

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A year ago today, classes at our Lady of the Angels Elementary parochial school, which stood here on this site, were preparing for dismissal.

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Suddenly a terrible fire started, believed to have begun at the bottom of a basement stairwell, and it flashed up immediately in seconds almost to a second story classroom on the north wing over to your left.

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There, 95 persons, 92 students, and three teachers were burned to death.

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Now a new building is being built on the site, a brand new Our Lady of the Angels School.

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Now back to John Daley in New York.

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Now back to Don Goddard in New York.