There’s a nationwide effort to get schools to clean out the clutter to comply with the fire code. In eastern Iowa, Clinton Superintendent Randy Clegg says lots of stuff is being tossed. Lots of personal stuff teachers had in their classrooms is now gone.Clegg says dorm-sized refrigerators, coffee pots, microwaves, and frying pans were often plugged into extension cords. Appliances are now to be used only in the faculty lounge, where there’s proper wiring to handle the electrical load. Clegg says the local fire marshal walked through school buildings, and made some recommendations.For example, lots of stuff’s been ripped off the walls, as the fire marshal says no more than 20 percent of any wall should be covered by flammable paper. They’ve removed items that were blocking some emergency exits, and taken stuff off window sills — just in case there’s a fire and students have to exit through the windows.
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