[Magdalen] A Sad Anniversary

[Roger Stokes]

On 02/12/2015 14:13, Jay Weigel wrote:
> That fire made a number of changes to school safety, all of them good. The
> school had been grandfathered into the existing codes by a law stating that
> if they had been in compliance at the time they were built they were in
> compliance. Bad move, obviously, since there were no heavy fire doors and
> only 2 sprinklers.

Improving building codes to improve safety is, obviously, good and 
sensible.  However the practicality of doing so can be a major issue, 
and far more expensive than if the precautions had been designed in 
originally. There are calculations involved in risk reduction which look 
at the probability of something happening along with the effect of it 
does.  Multiply the two figures together and you get a numeric value for 
the risk.  Reducing the risk of fire in a setting has a major effect on 
this and the banning of ssmoking in offices and other buildings is a 
great help here.

When I was in seminary the Principal was noted as being a smoker who had 
lots of paper on the floor of his office.  The one relatively narrow 
door to the (upstairs) chapel opened onto a passage passing the door to 
his office.  The only alternative was up a spiral staircase and along 
another passage above the office.  Fortunately we didn't have an 
incident where some glowing ash started paper smouldering which then 
caught fir while we were crowded into the chapel.

Roger