Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Date:
April
26,
2010
From:
Edward
Olmsted,
CIH,
CSP
Subject:
Life
Safety
Inspection
PS
47
–
West
23rd
Street,
Manhattan
On
April
23,
2010
an
environmental
health
and
safety
inspection
was
performed
at
the
school
at
225
East
23rd
Street.
The
main
school
at
this
facility
is
PS
47,
School
for
the
Deaf.
The
other
schools
include
PS
138,
which
is
a
district
75
school
and
mainly
occupies
the
addition
built
adjacent
to
the
original
building.
There
is
also
PS
347,
which
is
a
k
through
8
school.
It
was
reported
that
the
Quest
school
will
be
moved
from
the
2nd
floor
and
Clinton
school
will
use
the
end
floor.
They
plan
to
move
250
to
300
students
into
the
building
onto
the
3rd
floor
where
70
students
were
previously
housed.
The
teachers
were
concerned
that
the
school
is
already
crowded
and
increasing
the
school
population
by
over
150
students
will
cause
more
severe
and
unsafe
over-‐crowding.
Photos
of
some
of
the
problem
areas
are
attached
to
this
report/
The
following
summarizes
the
survey
results.
1.
The
building
is
not
sprinklered
and
has
no
fire
suppression
system.
The
floors
are
wood
and
as
such
the
building
has
a
significant
amount
of
combustible
materials.
2. The
fire
stairs
are
required
to
have
a
two-‐hour
fire
rating.
The
current
fire
doors
into
the
stairs
are
not
two-‐hour
rated
doors.
3. The
fire
alarm
system
rings
the
building
when
pull
stations
are
activated
but
it
is
up
to
the
principal
to
call
the
fire
department
and
order
an
evacuation.
The
activation
of
the
alarm
does
not
notify
the
fire
department.
4. The
fire
stair
doors
do
not
meet
current
standards
as
a
fire
rated
door.
They
have
wire
glass
windows
and
they
do
not
latch
closed.
The
exit
doors
do
not
have
panic
hardware.
5. The
fire
doors
in
the
hallways
are
not
adequate
to
prevent
the
movement
of
heat
and
smoke
through
them.
There
are
gaps
around
the
doors
and
they
do
not
latch,
nor
do
they
have
panic
hardware.
6. In
some
stairwells
the
stair
widths
are
too
narrow.
The
life
safety
code
requires
stairs
to
have
minimum
width
clearance
hand
rail
to
hand
rail
of
44
inches.
In
stair
F
and
stair
4
the
stairs
had
less
than
44
inch
clearance.
7. The
stair
landings
are
not
adequate
in
that
exit
doors
project
into
the
pathway
of
travel
on
the
stair.
In
stairs
4
and
F
the
doors
open
into
the
pathway
of
travel
and
obstruct
the
stair.
This
will
create
bottlenecks
at
each
landing
during
exiting.
8. The
school
building
is
arranged
so
that
pre-‐K
and
Kindergarten
students
are
located
on
the
2nd
floor.
Given
that
8th
graders
will
be
in
the
building
this
creates
a
trample
hazard
when
large
high
school
students
evacuate
down
the
same
stair
as
4
and
5
year
old
children.
The
life
safety
code
does
not
permit
Pre-‐K
and
kindergarten
children
to
be
in
classrooms
that
are
not
on
the
ground
floor
level.
9. In
order
to
accommodate
high
school
and
elementary
school
students
the
gym
has
a
partition
wall
placed
in
the
center
dividing
the
area
into
two
equal
halves.
There
is
an
exit
stair
on
each
side
and
there
are
doors
in
the
partition
that
provide
a
secondary
means
of
egress.
However,
these
doors
are
difficult
to
open.
Door
openings
as
part
of
a
means
of
egress
are
required
to
be
a
minimum
of
32
inches
in
width.
The
doors
in
the
partition
are
only
30
inches.
These
partition
doors
do
not
meet
fire
code
requirements
as
a
part
of
a
means
of
egress.
10. There
are
no
strobe
lights
for
the
fire
alarm
system
in
the
bathrooms.
This
is
a
school
for
deaf
children
and
fire
alarms
are
required
to
have
visible
strobes
that
are
capable
of
being
observed
in
all
areas
occupied
by
students
and
staff.
11. The
exit
ramp
to
the
street
from
the
cafeteria
has
a
gate
that
opens
against
the
direction
of
travel.
This
can
create
bottlenecks
during
evacuation
of
th
cafeteria.