When a fire ripped through a maintenance room in the physics building at the University of Maryland at College Park in October 2002, a master electrician, Kurt G. Tassche, died of smoke inhalation. While four other university workers managed to escape, Mr. Tassche, 41, was trapped by Christmas decorations and chairs stored in the cramped space. The illegally stored items were among six serious violations cited by state safety officials during their investigation of the fire.
Trapped by Christmas decorations. So many things come to mind. Lots of jokes and stories to recall.
But it comes down to safety issues and workers' rights. What happens to our workers -- even at, or especially at, academic institutions? The article stated that less inspections were made even as the number of serious injury incidents arose, and even fewer inspections were conducted at institutions of higher learning. Hazardous work, but does it really have to come down to dying because there were too many Christmas decorations trapping you in place?
1 comment:
Once, when I was in college, a friend of mine and I had to clean out a professor's office because it was deemed a serious fire hazard. The rumor was that her house was the same way, and she lived in a local hotel. I have no idea if this was true, but I SO HOPE it was...
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