Fire Department investigators have cited Beacon High School in Manhattan for
eight violations, finding that dangerous chemicals were being stored unsafely
and that safety equipment and practices were lacking in at least three rooms.
One was the makeshift lab where two students were engulfed in flames last week
when a chemistry
demonstration went horribly awry.
The department gave the school, which is on the
Upper West Side, 10 days to correct some of the violations of fire and building
codes, and 30 days for others. But it did not issue a “cease and desist” order,
which could have closed the teaching labs, James Long, a Fire Department
spokesman, said on Wednesday.
...Science safety experts say that the deficiencies found at Beacon are widespread in American schools, and that accidents that have maimed teachers and students keep happening because of systemic shortcomings.
