Fire in China poultry plant kills more than 100 people – Al Jazeera (vide0)

China Poultry Farm Fire: Blaze Kills At Least 119 Workers In Northeastern Province – Huffington Post

A swift-moving fire trapped panicked workers inside a poultry slaughterhouse in northeastern China that had only a single open exit, killing at least 119 people in one of the country’s worst industrial disasters in years.

Survivors described workers, mostly women, struggling through smoke and flames to reach doors that turned out to be locked or blocked.

One worker, 39-year-old Guo Yan, said the emergency exit at her workstation could not be opened and she was knocked to the ground in the crush of workers searching for a way to escape the fire Monday.

“I could only crawl desperately forward,” Guo was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. “I worked alongside an old lady and a young girl, but I don’t know if they survived or not.”

The accident highlights the high human costs of China’s lax industrial safety standards, which continue to endanger workers despite recent improvements in the country’s work safety record. It also comes amid growing international concern over factory safety across Asia following the collapse in April of a garment factory building in Bangladesh where more than 1,100 people died.

Closed door prevents apartment fire from spreading – Channel 3000

Sun Prairie firefighters credit a young woman who closed her apartment door with preventing a fire from spreading to other apartment units.

Firefighters were called to an apartment complex on Wyoming Avenue at 8:52 p.m. Wednesday for a report of a fire. The fire was out by 9:07 p.m.

Fire officials said extensive damage was done to one unit and nine other units suffered water and smoke damage.

“The fact that the occupant closed the door on the way out is why there is not significant fire damage to the whole building,” stated Firefighter Ron Yoss.

Damage from the fire is estimated to be $100,000.

Fire damages W-B elementary school’s library – Citizens Voice

Photo: Mark Moran

Windows in the modular classroom, which houses the library and computer lab, were knocked out late Thursday morning, but a fire door that separates the two was closed and saved the computer lab, which appeared mostly unharmed.

“If they had left that door open, it would look like it looks in here,” Delaney said, gesturing to the charred and blackened library.

School iris-scanning program has parents seeing red – MSN News

The Examiner reported that three schools in Florida had to cancel their iris-scanning program. Daniel Jenkins Academy, Davenport School of the Arts and Bethune Academy — high, middle and elementary schools, respectively — planned to use a pilot security program.

But, the Examiner reported, the school let Stanley Convergent Security Solutions take iris scans of an unknown number of students well before parents were notified.

A letter parents received on May 24 says the program was “an ideal replacement” for a card-based identification system the schools had been using. But after complaining to school officials, parents were told the program had been shut down.

W.Va. authority OKs shatter-proof glass, door alarms for schools – WVVA.com

New schools built in West Virginia will be required to have shatter-proof glass and exterior door alarms.

The requirements are among several safety measures approved by the West Virginia School Building Authority.

Media outlets report that the authority voted to revise its quality and performance manual on Monday during a meeting at Spring Mills Primary School.

Other changes require new schools to have separate visitor entrance and waiting areas. Administrative offices must have a direct line of sight to a school’s parking lot.

The door alarms will sound when a door is ajar. The goal is to discourage staff and students from propping a door open with wedges or other items.

Fire door specialist is FDIS first centurion – 24 Dash

Fire safety professionalism reached an important milestone this week with the news that Paul Stockham, Managing Director of Maidenhead-based Fire Door Services (FDS) is the 100^th person to pass the FDIS Diploma, Europe’s first qualification for fire door experts.

The Diploma was launched last year as part of the Fire Door Inspection Scheme, which is delivered by the BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door and Doorset Scheme and the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers. The scheme aims to transform people’s knowledge about how and why fire doors work and the potential dangers of getting it wrong.

FDS is the fire door inspection and survey specialist division of Project Support Services and provides services to a wide range of organisations including charities, housing associations and property companies as well as blue chip companies such as Blackberry, Citigroup and Warner Music.

EXCLUSIVE: 90% of schools have at least one building code violation – NY Daily News

The city operates about 1,200 public school buildings and as of Wednesday, those structures had 9,693 open building and environmental violations. Fifty-seven schools had two dozen open violations or more.

Many of the open violations were reported months or years ago. Union officials blamed the slow repairs on cuts to city funding of school maintenance and repair projects.

School capital budgets were reduced significantly in the past several years, union officials said, including a $700 million decrease adopted in fiscal year 2011.

You need to login or register to bookmark/favorite this content.