Pennsylvania's Shiney New Construction Suppresion Law

[tw]

Originally posted by Griff
Everyone cares about some kind of freedom. I believe in being free to create what I want to create. If I want a stacked stone foundation, I don't want some underemployed engineer swinging by to inspect, fail, and declare uninhabitable my home.

Griff has just advocated the freedom to murder - calling it acceptable because it was due to ignorance. In another discussion, many so called computer experts don' t bother to learn basic facts - and even promote scams. They assemble clone computers with power supplies defective even by 30 year old standards. But at least those scammer don't murder people.

Griff demands the right to murder 167 innocent people in Southgate Ky on 28 May 1977. Some escaped only to walk away, stop, keel over, and later due to toxic fumes. This is what Griff advocates because he feels anyone is smarter than the technically trained. Or is it classic George Jr reasoning - the politics always justifies both the ends and means? The technically trained only spent decades learning lessons proven by history. He must be stupid because Griff says freedom is more important.

Griff. You openly and callously advocate a total disregard for human life. Screw the lessons of history. You know better because of your conservative political beliefs? Tell it to another who advocates same - Ariel Sharon. How typically right wing extremist of you to advocate your righteous interests as superior to another human life.

from Inside the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire
Not obvious was the fact that Mr Schilling had designed and built the room without the benefit of any professional help, had obtained no building permit, or that the construction had undergone no inspections of any kind. Fate held a dark role for this room. Again, we did not learn until too late that the uninspected electrical wiring was flawed. These factors, in conjunction with the physical location of the Zebra Room - under the unenclosed stairway and next to the main hallway [another code violation] - produced a true prescription for disaster.

The electrician who installled the wiring in the Zebra Room admitted that he was aware that failure to place wiring in metal conduit was a violation of the NEC. He told the investigators that, "Mr Schilling provided all the materials used in the Zebra Room... The wiring was number twelve, non-metallic wire, was not run through conduit as specified in the code... and [Mr Schilling] advised [me] that he had permission to use these type supplies and wiring in the building. ...

I am disappointed in the simple conclusion that the fire was "electrical in nature." It has always been my understanding that the actual cause of the fire was that aluminum wiring was spliced to copper wiring in the Zebra Room. I'm told that this is a violation of electrical codes because the two materials are incompatible, and that, over time, such a junction will corrode and overheat.

Damn straight that such wiring will kill people. You expect people who don't even know simple, basic, fundamental, functions in a PC power supply to also understand the grave (167 of them) dangers of connecting copper to aluminum? Griff's says these same people should have the right to build as they please.

Governor Carroll ... went particularly hard on Mr Schilling, citing construction activities in violation of the law beause of no building permit and using non-code materials, employing an unregistered architect and then modifying the drawings himself, lack of reasonable care in developing an evacuation plan, and over-crowding.

So who was this Mr Schilling? A cheap bastard only out for a profit? Not according to the author who cites again and again Mr Schilling's special regard for people, customers, and his employees. In fact Mr Schilling even recovered (or stole) the tip book from a crime scene so that employees could receive their last paychecks. But Mr Schilling was doing what most readers here would do if code inspections were not required. Mr Schilling did exactly what Griff advocates - because political agendas are more important than human life.

Am I saying most poeple here are that corrupt? No. Inspections, more than verifying code enforcement, are a major source of well proven and new safety code information. Those inspections are what make it possible for the technically naive to be creative - without killing humans. Griff disagrees.

If we were a more responsible nation, then only those with years of education and licenses after extensive testing would be permitted to build anything. However this is America where innovative people are necessary and essential. Mr Schilling was one of those very inciteful and innovative people - built a spectaculor club - but who simply had no appreciation for simple, well proven building requirements and the lessons of history. Just more reasons why those five inspections are essential. Some very good people are so easily corrupted by convenience as to even murder 167 people. Those inspections are what keep the so creative people honest. Since Mr Schilling did not have construction permits and building inspections, then he killed 167 people - out of mental and technical ignorance.

Griff may not like reality. But reality is that building inspections are necessary for human safety.

Inspections should never be considered sufficient for human safety. But inspections are a most powerful building tool we have to keep the creator honest and to confirm that the lessons from so many dead people are not lost in vain. I am sorry, Griff. But I have seen, too often, near misses (potential killing events) simply because of the ill educated advocate their rights over safety of others. Presented as Exhibit A - a big capital A in your face - are the 167 victims of the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire - because someone else thought just as Griff advocates.

An apology by Griff to those victims is appropriate because he says their deaths are irrelevant.
May 28, 1977
The Fire that Still Rages
NFPA
Eventually, the temperature in the Cabaret Room would hit 2,000 degrees
Cabaret Room where 90 people died was between 120 and 260 feet at other end of building from where the fire started.
It will be with me until the day I die
What Griff advocates because freedom is more important than well proven technology and reality. Some of that reality - the morgue that a very conservative Griff fears to consider: