The south windows of the north wing overlooked a small courtyard surrounded by the school on three sides, and a high iron picket fence on the fourth side facing Avers Avenue. Because of earlier problems with vandalism, the gate in the fence was routinely kept locked. Firemen could not get ladders to the children at the south windows without first breaking through the gate. They spent two minutes battering the gate with sledgehammers and a ladder before they managed to smash it by backing a fire truck into it. The locked gate delayed the rescues of rooms 209 and 211.