Raleigh, April 17—Not “economy” but honest doubt as to the value of a sprinkler system in a building such as the State hospital for the insane was back of the refusal of the recent State legislature’s (failure?) to appropriate funds for the installation of such a fire prevention system in the building which burned last Saturday, Governor A.W. McLean explained yesterday.
“If the 1923 legislature had been actuated solely by motives of ‘economy,’ certainly it would not have appropriated something like 41,000,000 for new buildings and improvements for that one institution alone,” the governor pointed out.
The governor has been amused at the efforts of some individuals and newspapers to lay the blame for the fire to the administration’s economy program, in view of the fact that the same persons and papers admit, naively, that legislatures antedating the present administration’s inauguration also have declined to fit out the main building of the State hospital and other structures equally as ancient with sprinkler systems.
There is no uniformity of opinion, even among experts, that the much discussed sprinkler devices would have prevented, or even assisted to any great extent in checking the spread of the fire through the entire west wing. In the first place, the fire started in, or near, the roof, above any sprinkler outlets, had there been any. In the second place, the fire would have spread just the same through the furred walls, for the water from the sprinklers could not have reached it through the heavy plastering. As one man put it, about all sprinklers would have done would have been to keep the inmates thoroughly soaked.
The governor does not question the effectiveness of sprinkler systems in buildings of more modern construction, but he does doubt, seriously, their value in buildings such as the one partially burned Saturday.
At the same time, he calls attention to the fact that the last legislature, and previous general assemblies, for that matter, refused to provide the money for the installation of such a system independent of his views.
The governor does plan to recommend to the board of directors of the State hospital, as soon as the new building is ready for occupancy, that the remaining portion of the main building be made as nearly fireproof as possible.
He will urge that fire walls be built, dividing the building into five or six sections, the walls extending through the roof so that any fire which might start could not find its way around them. This would effectually prevent any such disastrous fire as that of last week, since the flames would be confined to one portion. Too, it would safeguard lives, since it would be five times as easy to empty one-fifth of the building of its patients as it would be to vacate the entire building.
The governor also will recommend that the wooden girders in the roof and other portions of the building be covered with wire lath, then given a coating of some kind of fire proof cement. This would remove still more of the danger of fire either starting or spreading. The wood, incidentally, is of rich pine and highly inflammable.
Then, if experts agree that a sprinkler system will be an effectual safeguard, the governor will recommend that such added protection be installed.
By such methods, the governor believes that the remaining portions of the old building can be made as thoroughly fireproof as is possible, considering the age and construction of the building. Many of the State buildings are several decades old, put up before fireproofing methods of construction were known. It is impossible, of course, to make them proof against fire, but, where possible, such measures as are found necessary and advisable will be taken to safeguard them.
The new wing of the State hospital is to be of fireproof construction It will be impossible to do any considerable amount of wok on the other portions until it is completed, as the women inmates have to be moved to other quarters before their wing can be altered.
From the Concord Daily Tribune, April 17, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-04-17/ed-1/seq-1/
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