You may be well aware of the gross misstatement of facts within the front-page article in the Lincoln Log dated September 2007 that was written by Lincoln HS student, Colleen Ma. The headline of her article was: Temporary Bungalows fail to meet fire safety standards. I just wanted to respond to the District with clarification that the Interim Housing does meet fire safety standards.

The new temporary bungalows include 20 doublewide portables (60’x24’ – 680 sq. ft interior), one single classroom portable (40’x24’ – 894 sq. ft. interior) and one toilet room portable building.

The doublewide portables measure 60’x24’ which leaves interior sq. ft of 680 sq. ft. This is less than the CDE guidelines of 960 sq. ft. but compliant w/ state guidelines for urban areas.

The article states: “California State law states that there should be a minimum of 2 exits other than elevators wherever the number of occupants exceeds eighty.”

This is incorrect. Exit requirements are governed by the CA Building Code and are based on a number of factors including occupancy type and occupant load. Classrooms have an occupant load factor of 20 sq. feet that would result in an occupant load for the 680 sq. foot portables of 34 and occupant load for the 894 sq. foot portables of 45. For classrooms, two exits are required where the occupant load exceeds 50 per CBC Table 10-A.

Additionally, as is the case with the future phases, the Temporary Bungalow site plan including classroom exiting, site egress and fire truck site access was reviewed during planning and approved by the Local Fire Marshall prior to construction as well as reviewed and approved by the Division of the State Architect. Fire/Life-Safety is of the utmost importance to us in planning and executing projects and the Temporary Bungalows do not fail to meet the fire safety standards.

Please let me know if you have any questions or require additional information,

Mary Ruppenthal, one of the architects and the Project Manager for the Interim Housing, Modernization and New Classrooms at Lincoln High School