Our Obligation (1960)

[Music] Elementary School Room USA. It's a wonderful part of the American scene. It's common place but important. And it's quite the same whether it's in a big city, average town, or country hamlet. At least in its objectives. In this room, our children develop character, acquire knowledge, make lasting friendships, become adjusted to our social life, and prepare for the successful future that our school system strives to ensure. Mrs. Simmons tries to be a second mother in addition to being a teacher. She has the qualifications of both with her pleasing personality, her lasting patience, her understanding mind, and her loyalty to each of her different types of students. She has her daydreamers, her chatter boxes, her mischief makers, [Music] and the one or two who always seem to be a little ahead of the group. Jerry isn't as big as some of the other boys, but that doesn't bother him. Despite his small stature, he's the one who's usually in there with the right pitch in a ball game, the right approach for a trade or the right answer to a question. And if it isn't right, at least it's enthusiastic. He likes baseball, bugs, bubble gum, and bells, like those that ring when school is out. [Music] Jerry is a natural. He's friendly and likes to share his experiences with his classmates. Sharp, alert, cooperative. He has the confidence and easy ability of a born leader. His future, it's as solid as that schoolroom door. Next to the home, our schools are closest to our children's hearts and minds. It means much to mom and dad that the children are in a safe, well- constructed building during those long hours away from home. [Music] Most of a youngster's life is geared to learning. It's a combined program. The children's problems are the parents problems. And sometimes sister's problems becomes brothers. Helping Nancy makes Jerry feel a little bigger. They're learning. Learning for those long, bright years ahead. Bright years that schools such as these can make possible or can destroy at any time. [Music] Take a typical morning as Jerry and Nancy arrive at school. Their mother drops them off as she goes to do the family shopping. As they wave goodbye to mom and start up the school steps, they hurry. It's a little late. Jerry is getting concerned. They go up the stairs to the second floor where Nancy enters her room, room 202. [Music] Jerry walks quickly to his own room at the other end of the hall. He doesn't like to be late and most of his classmates are already in the room. [Music] He's a little excited. Something is going to happen in this school today. Something his family and teachers will never forget. Jerry thinks he knows. If you care to ask him, he'll tell you. This is the morning he's going to read his prize-winning essay to the class. About an hour and a half later, Mrs. Simmons finishes the arithmetic lesson, asks the children to close their books, and motions to Jerry to come forward. He moves to the front of the room and patiently stands there holding his paper as the teacher attempts to bring the class to order. Sydney back there is still talking as usual. The teacher claps again for order. Jerry looks at the clock. He has only about 10 minutes to read his essay. He begins nervously at first, but as he moves through the first few seconds of the now familiar lines, he feels better. Their number was very small. Their problems were very large. But they had faith in the future of a great country they could build for the nations to come. They were willing to make sacrifices to provide these future generations with the best and safest schools for the children. Suddenly something that was not in the classroom schedule interrupts Jerry's reading and electrifies everyone. Some laugh, some remain silent. Everyone wants to see. One glance convinces Mrs. Simmons. The smoke is real. She moves fast to calm the youngsters, restore order. That's her first job. [Music] Her next job is to investigate the trouble. [Music] What she sees outside stuns her. Smoke. Hot smoke. The hallway is full of it. No beginning or end. It just suddenly is out there. Somehow she has to get the children out and sound the alarm. But can she? Reassuring the children by telling them that it's probably the school incinerator stopped up again, she tells them to remain seated while she checks the hallway. The students sit obediently, silently, fascinated by the smoke pushing through the transom. It begins to sting their eyes. This is not a drill, not a joke. It's their first experience with fire, and they're afraid. Mrs. Simmons got just far enough in the hallway to learn two things. The rear stairway is hopelessly cut off, and it would be suicide to take 30 children down that long hall. She had heard confused voices and coughing at the other end of the hall, but couldn't see anyone. Maybe the air is clearer there. Right now, she realizes she has to keep the smoke out of the room. She should have done this first. A growing fear within Jerry begins to overshadow his concern for himself. His sister, such a little girl. What is she doing? Downstairs, the air is clear. Mr. Evans, newly appointed principal of the school, is talking to his secretary as a student rushes in with [Music] One look convinces the principal. He tells his secretary to sound the school alarm bell while he checks the stairway. She does as she's told, but no one told her to call the fire department. It's 10:21 by the office clock. 6 minutes after Judy Adams first saw smoke coming through the transom. Room 224 is taking smoke around the sides and tops of the transom and the door. She knows what's out there. She's seen it. The children can sense it. 30 small pairs of eyes reflect the same question. Teacher, what do we do now? But this time, teacher can't answer their question. There's nothing in a teaching manual that tells you how to get 30 children out of a second floor fire. So she tries the only thing she knows that may forestall the panic that is sure to come. She tells them, "We'll sing boys and girls loud. And when we're through singing, help will be here. Help is on its way. One minute after the school alarm rang, a passerby saw smoke and tripped a street alarm box. Other calls followed. Engine and ladder company 35 and battalion 5 roll out of this station. [Music] Other companies respond to fill in the assignment. This company returning from another call receives the alarm on radio. It'll take them a minute and a half to get there, a half a minute to set up. 2 minutes. How fast can fire travel in 2 minutes? Jerry is making the most important decision of his life. His sister is down that hall not far. His is a child's logic. A guy's got to be with his sister when she needs him. Not here singing songs. He figures he can make it all right. If he holds his breath and runs close to the floor. Mrs. Simmons caught his swift movement. She had been waiting for it, dreading it. She knew that sooner or later, one of them would run for the window or door. If she moves quickly enough, she can pull the boy back. [Music] From the areas unobstructed by the smoke or fire, the pupils are leaving in fire drill order. Most of them still unaware there is a fire. And as they pour from the school, fire apparatus moves through the city streets, past homes, markets, office buildings. [Music] and the curious speculate. He thought for a minute that it might be the school until his friend reminds him the school is solid brick. Dr. Morgan wonders a moment. He's a member of the school board. Could it be? He's been throughout that building many times considering its accommodations and teaching facilities. Now, could it? No, no, couldn't be. Not that building. Carpenter Johnson and his helper get a better view. Grammar school? Not likely, son. But I don't know. Those brick buildings hold up a lot of lumber. Mrs. Jorgensson doesn't care if it's the school or not. Her only concern is her dislike of sirens. She thinks fire apparatus should observe all the traffic regulations she has to. But to mothers who see smoke in the general direction of a school, there is no question, only instinctive premonition. And to the man in charge, it's stark reality. This is what a fireman dreads most. Kids in a burning school building. There is no fireproof school, nor fireproof student. He's calling for a three alarm assignment, two extra ladder companies, and all available ambulances. The 2 minutes are up, and in 224, singing has stopped. It's fire out there now, not just smoke. And it's coming inside. First, the transom, now the door. Dense smoke, hot and black, hides panic in a classroom filled with terrified, choking children. But it can't keep their screams and cries from the people gathering below. Nor can it hide the sight of stronger ones who have fought their way to the window and prepare to jump. Don't jump. What do they know of the heat on your back and the fire in your throat? Down there, there's air to breathe. And just seconds before ladders are raised to the windows, one more child makes the crippling break. And in every fireman's mind is the single thought. One minute. If only they had been called just one minute sooner. But now they are here. Their work is cut out. It's the ones inside they are concerned about. They realize full well the problems they face here. Groping for kids in a room filled with fire and smoke. The danger of panic-stricken children at a second floor window fighting to be saved from a fiery death. And the hazards of carrying them down ladders. This is the situation that develops before the eyes of the parents, friends, and neighbors in this district who now want so desperately to save the lives of their school children. But their efforts are too late. This is a job for trained firemen. The fire has spread rapidly to other parts of the building. These classes were delayed by smoke block corridors and had to be rerouted. They know it's a real fire. They breathed the smoke and felt the heat and they're glad to get out. The fire has now grown into a flaming red monster within the building. And as more companies arrive, the chief in charge directs them. More ladders, more hose lines, more men to combat this uncontrolled inferno. More men to search the classrooms to reassure, gain entrance, and affect rescue where little heads have been seen. The last of the students to leave by this exit are just ahead of the flames, but firemen entering know there are others that they must find and lead to safety. others in limp and lifeless forms that they must carry out. As rescue men arrive, the victims have already been laid out for them, and more are coming. Theirs is a big job, and they realize it. Only the lucky ones won't need their help. Inside, the hosemen have attacked the flames, and the task of controlling the fire is underway. More students from Mrs. Simmons class and adjoining rooms are brought out a side door. Hose lines were worked down the hallway and the fire was knocked down enough to get the children down a side stairway. But the fire is still burning furiously in some areas. The smoke is dense and hot throughout the building. Breathing apparatus is required. More hose lines are needed. They don't know how many children are still in there or where they are. It's their job to find out. And it's their job to revive those that can be saved. An experienced fire chief's size up of a school fire proved to be correct. All the equipment he ordered is required for fire extinguishment and rescue work. All her fears are graphically portrayed in the terrible spectacle before her. But momentarily, her hopes are heightened. Her class was one of the fortunate ones at the end of the hall away from the fire. But Jerry, his room was in this wing. And as parents watch, they wonder which one will be theirs. Out here on the cool grass, a doctor nods and a dozen mothers gasp their relief. It's smoke inhalation. They'll be okay in a few days. [Music] Those who jump were not so fortunate. and the two in the hallway. The fire is being extinguished in this area and in the stairwell nearby, but it's still hot and the smoke is dense. It burns the eyes and tears at the lungs of the firemen as they move forward along the corridor. As they advance, they keep an alert eye open for evidence of any victims, but are hoping that no one had been trapped in the unbearable heat and deadly gases that had filled this hallway. But their hopes are shattered as they see the lifeless form of a loyal young school teacher lying with a protective arm over a freckle-faced little boy. Both huddled in a corner seeking protection that wasn't there. They are beyond a doctor's help. Both felt they must fulfill an obligation. A teacher to her student, a boy to his sister. Was it their obligation or was it ours? What changed a beautiful, well- constructed building into a funeral p in a matter of minutes? The answer is inside. Fire started in a storage closet in the basement behind a door that was not an approved fireresistive door. The wooden door held just long enough to create an oxygen starved fire that burst into full blossom when the door gave way. It had only one way to go. Smoke, fire, and their lethal gases boiled up that chimney-like stairway and traveled along the upper hallway with enough pressurized heat to force it through every opening in the ceiling, every crack in the wall. Once these dangerous gases enter a hallway, glass transoms and flimsy doors will not keep them away from your children. They must be held back by fireresistive construction or a fire sprinkler system long enough to allow fire companies to get the children out the windows or control the fire with hose lines. Within minutes, smoke like this was cramming the hallway in the classrooms. This searing wall of gases is what they speak of when they tell you he was mercifully suffocated before the fire reached him. merciful at 400°. Perhaps so when compared to the flames themselves, it happened in just 10 minutes from the time Judy Adams first detected smoke in room 224. Tests show that it has happened in as little as 2 minutes. Under the threat of such deadly limitation of time, how can anyone presume or decide that even the most up-to-date and efficient school alarm system is effective if the teacher has to run to the first floor to reach it or get clearance from the proper authorities before using it? Should we citizens know that one extra stairway will empty a floor full of school children when other exits are blocked? that hallways and stairways are wide enough to handle hundreds of panicky youngsters. Should we know the principle of sprinkler systems? That the heat from a fire sets them off automatically and causes the water to flow and that the school alarm can be made to sound when the water begins to flow. Should we know that only those sprinkler heads that are affected by the heat are actuated, thus preventing excessive water damage, or that water pressure affects their efficiency? Should we know that a transom should be replaced or a door protected or that a building is safe just because it looks good? Are these our obligations? Yet, as parents of school children, we should know what constitutes a firesafe school. The technical questions are decided by professional fire and building authorities and their answers are recorded in the nation's fire engineering manuals. [Music] Tragic examples of what has happened in American schools are right there in the fire records. Colinwood Grammar School, 175 dead. Camden Rural School, 77 dead. Bab Switch School, 36 dead. Cleveland Hill School, 15 dead. Our Lady of the Angels School, 95 dead. 12 major school fires each day. Solutions have been found to avert these tragedies. In the city of Los Angeles, more than 70 fire tests were conducted by the fire department in this abandoned school building can be made safe. In new buildings, the maximum degree of life safety can be assured by providing direct exits from every classroom to the outside. This design is recommended for multiplestory as well as singlestory buildings. If new schools are built with inside corridors, classrooms should have solid doors and no transoms, and corridors and exitways should be provided with a sprinkler system for adequate protection for your children. Existing school buildings can be made safer by installing direct exits from every classroom to the outside wherever practicable or by installing a sprinkler system. These sprinklers not only reduce the hazard of fire spreading from its origin, but they can eliminate the necessity of costly remodeling to assure fires safe schools. The Los Angeles Board of Education is following this plan of action. [Music] The fire chief, building official, and school board here in your town know about this. They are obligation, hours, cooperation, support, and a favorable vote when district funds are needed for cor managed to get her boy into that already overcrowded parochial school by exerting the right pressure. Do you remember the recent meeting in the city hall concerning school improvements when the extra exits among other things were shelved because of expenses? Did you really think of your school when they were more firemen in the last budget and the new fire pumper? How many of us spoke up at the PTA meeting about the school play regarding those combustible decorations that were used? How many of us even went to the meeting? How many of us as a community group of mothers and fathers would it take to stand up and solidly support, push, if need be, a sensible, workable fire safety program for our schools and then personally follow it through? How many? Just enough hardthinking, determined people to fulfill our obligation to our children. [Music]