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Fire safety regulations are limited in their scope and it is vital that those responsible for fire safety consider far more than the narrowly focused legal requirements
 Fire is destructive and the impact of a fire on normal operations in a school or college can be catastrophic. However, the emotional and consequential costs can far outweigh the cost of merely putting right the material damage to the building and contents. Fire safety regulations are limited in their scope as they are only concerned with life safety and do not deal with protection of property, ‘business continuity’, or the impact of fire on pupils, students, parents or guardians and the community, though some regard is now being given to the impact of fire and fire effluents on the environment.
More than saving lives
As the loss of school premises, school records and pupils’ or students’ work can have a devastating effect on many people, it is important that those responsible for fire safety arrangements at schools and colleges consider more than the life safety aspects of the fire safety regulations. Installing additional fire protection or fire prevention measures to help safeguard the premises and business from fire and the effects of fire ought to be a high priority too.
Historically, little emphasis was placed on fire prevention, with more interest shown in dealing with the effects of fire after the fire had started. However, it is now recognised that the overwhelming majority of fires in educational premises are started deliberately and much can be gained by giving more attention to fire prevention.
A new publication called ‘Fire risk management in schools and college’s by Nigel Smithies (published by the Fire Protection Association) addresses the topic of fire risk management in schools and colleges from this point of view. Its scope ranges from how to comply with the requirements of the law to the broader considerations that may be required to ensure ‘business continuity’ as well as preventing fire from occurring in the first place. The booklet also contains a checklist reminder of what fire safety checks should be carried out on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis.
Requirements of the law
New fire safety legislation was introduced throughout the UK on 1 October 2006. Although the new fire law is based on fire risk assessment, the legislation has been introduced slightly differently across England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
In England and Wales, the relevant legislation is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. In Scotland, the relevant legislation is two-fold, being Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006. While in Northern Ireland, the relevant legislation will be Part 3 of the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and the Fire Safety (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2006.
The responsibility for fire risk assessment rests with one or more people in a school or place of education. For example, the head teacher, the chair of governors or the local authority may all be responsible for one or more aspects of fire safety. The responsible person should appoint a ‘competent person’ to carry out the fire risk assessment.
In small, individually run premises, the head teacher, the owner or manager will probably be the responsible person, and may well have sufficient expertise or knowledge to nominate himself as the competent person. In larger schools or colleges or in premises that are part of a local education authority, the head teacher or principal will probably assume the role of the responsible person. However, the competent person may well be someone different, a part-time consultant or a local authority employee who is the competent person for all of the authority’s premises.
Susceptibility to fire
Deliberate fire-setting or arson is the main source of fires in school or educational premises. This typically ranges from setting fire to toilet rolls or paper towels to smoke log amenity blocks through to ‘out of hours’ vandalism by children and youths or disgruntled pupils who may not realise the small fire they have started may well cause considerable damage or destroy the premises.
The particular characteristics of the premises and occupants need to be recognised in order to maintain the fire risk at an acceptable level. Schools or places of education are typically designed to ensure the easy movement of pupils and students around the building. They are often designed to feel light and airy and may contain large circulation spaces and assembly areas, which may also house craft, art or teaching displays, notice boards, tables, chairs, rubber mats and so on, all of which may be relatively easy to ignite and present a high fire load. Some corridors or circulation spaces may also house combustible materials, for example open cloak areas or pupil’s lockers.
Schools are often designed and built to minimise costs whilst at the same time provide an adequate level of fire safety for the occupants. This can result in minimal fire compartmentation within the building, which, in effect, promotes the spread of smoke and fire should a fire start.
Sources of ignition
Bunsen burners in laboratories, blow torches and metal working forges together with gas hobs in domestic science areas are all examples of naked flames - sources of ignition - that may be found in schools or educational premises. Another potential source of ignition is smoking, and while this is essentially less of a problem in society as a whole as fewer people smoke and smoking is now banned in public areas, some pupils or students will still smoke. Surreptitious smoking and covert smoking by staff in entrances, empty rooms and so on can present a fire risk.
Deep fat frying and flame grilling in the preparation of school lunches present obvious fire hazards. Although the cooking equipment may be fitted with automatic or manual fire suppression devices, the extract ductwork associated with these activities can also be a particular hazard unless there is a strict maintenance and housekeeping strategy in place to prevent or remove the build up of dust, fat droplets or particles and grease.
If suitable precautions are not taken, then in the event of personal injury or death resulting from a fire associated with a poorly maintained system, charges of corporate liability or manslaughter may be brought against the responsible person. Many insurance policies contain specific conditions relating to regimes of cleaning. If a fire occurs in kitchen extract ventilation and can be shown to be associated with inadequate cleaning of ductwork then it could jeopardise the right to indemnity for loss or damage under the relevant policy.
Other fire risks in places of education include:
- high fire loads in lockers, cloakrooms and resource areas and stores
- readily ignitable material on notice boards and displays in classrooms and assembly areas
- waste paper and material that has been segregated for recycling and is susceptible to deliberate ignition
- plastic or wooden chairs and tables - whether stacked at the back of the hall or dining room or set out for assembly or examinations - may also present large fire loads.
Fire risk assessment
One of the main duties of the responsible person under the new fire safety legislation is to ensure that a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment has been carried out and is implemented. ‘Fire risk management in schools and colleges’ comprehensively explains how to carry out a fire risk assessment using the ‘Seven-stage approach’. There are a number of particular issues that should be considered by the person responsible for a risk assessment at a school or college.
Arrangements will need to be in place for people with special needs and unusual occupancy patterns. Examples include times when people are working alone, are disabled, or when occupancy patterns are different from the norm, such as when the premises are partially occupied by staff during school holidays or the premises are being used for evening classes or a public meeting.
The addition of temporary classrooms may also have an impact on the overall fire precautions for a school. This may be in terms of an increase in overall pupil numbers in the main building, it may make changes to escape routes, or it may place an additional external fire load adjacent to your main premises.
In some simple, open-plan, single-storey premises with limited educational activities - for example, a small school or crèche - a fire may be obvious to everyone as soon as it starts. Consequently, where the number and location of exits and travel distance to them is satisfactory, a member of staff shouting ‘fire’ or a simple manually operated device, such as a bell or air horn that can be heard by everybody, may be all that is needed.
Most schools and places of education will, however, need an electrical fire detection and alarm system incorporating, sounders or other warning devices and break-glass manual call points. If sounders, such as bells are used for both a class-change signalling system and sounding the fire alarm, then it is necessary to ensure that the staff and pupils/students are able to distinguish between the two signals. For example, a continuous sound or an intermittent sound may be used to differentiate the two.
An argument for sprinklers
Large education establishments or combined facilities which include schools, colleges or universities may incorporate a variety of active fire protection systems including sprinklers (automatic fire suppression systems), automatic door release systems, and smoke curtains, and smoke control systems. Where such systems are not in place, fires are often uncontrollable by the time firefighters have arrived and deployed themselves, and it is not uncommon for large parts of a school or educational premises or even the whole of the premises and contents to be smoke logged, fire damaged, or even destroyed.
This has been seen many times in connection with out-of-hours school fires and has been one of the driving forces behind political lobbying to fit sprinkler systems to all schools to provide a level of active fire protection to both new and existing schools. Sprinkler systems were originally designed to protect property; however, increasingly they are being used to protect life, or to deal with recognised high fire hazards.
For more information
For further information on Fire risk management in schools and colleges and other FPA publications, please ring 01608 812500, e-mail
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