Fire codes have little to do with it.

Some teachers made the students stay inside, while they ran outside to save themselves. Not one teacher or adult died. I heard the principal has been arrested.

From the article:

Most [Indian] private schools are in crowded buildings that often lack basic safety measures such as fire alarms and sprinkler systems.


Furthermore, in an earlier article, reporters mentioned that there weren't enough unlocked exits (just one?) or windows through which the children could escape. Had there been clear routes of egress, I doubt so many would have perished.

I thought it was always women and children first... unless all the teachers where women (and the principal).

But from the article...



There's always two sides to a story folks.

Matt Fahrenbacher

I am not doubting that fire codes and safety measures are probably terrible in that part of the world, however I'm saying the cowardly, murderous actions of some teachers are very much to blame also, most likely.

No teachers died, and a senior fire officer said it was because they abandoned the children and ran from the burning school.

They? Considering what the class sizes could have been, that might be one teacher.

Matt Fahrenbacher

Those aren't my words, it was a quote from a news article. Do you seriously think there was one teacher for 800 students ?

Did you mean 80? And yes - that use to happen all the time in the US. It also says in the article some of the 80 killed weren't from the fire but from being tampeled and the like. As of right now, there just isn't enough info to say that all or a lot of the teachers just took off and left their kids to die.

Matt Fahrenbacher

I don't want to jump to conclusions. I'm as disgusted by the outcome of this tragedy as you are, but fire can move so quickly that the teachers wouldn't have had any time to react. The building had a thatched-roof supported by bamboo: that's not exactly fire-resistant material.

My guess is that the teachers briefly convened outside to discuss the situation, and then found that they couldn't get back to their classrooms in time to save some of their children. Regular fire drills might've prevented this fatal error.

The best way to minimize fire casualties is to prevent fires in the first place. India has a very corrupt civil service, and this is but one example of the consequences of lax building inspections. The U.S. has also seen its share of fire tragedies, which is why we now have such strict building/fire codes.

http://www.general-slocum.com/0acc.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...501_river5.html
http://www.ezl.com/~fireball/Disaster.htm

They couldn't do a rain dance?
/rimshot

I saw some of the pictures, it's very sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, family, and friends. Hope for a speedy recovery.

I think it was Indians from India, not North American Indians AKA native americans.