News
Education up in smoke? Arson demands answers.
Tom Welland, Fire Services Manager at leading fire safety specialists Fireco Ltd.
warns that fire safety must be a priority in your school. Here he focuses on vital aspects of fire safety: arson prevention and effective fire risk assessments.
Over the last two years there were almost 3,000 arson attacks on schools. That’s over 4 attacks a day, with arson accounting for just over half of all school fires, according to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. A recent Government report estimates the true cost of these fires at £115 million.
The odds on your school experiencing such a fire are about 1 in 20, but that is not the whole picture. Many fires are not reported, at least to fire brigades, particularly if they self-extinguish or are put out by staff. Research by the Arson Prevention Bureau in 1998 found that more than a half of all school fires fall in this category, but that the total cost of unreported fires is unlikely to be very large.
Even small fires can be damaging and costly, and larger fires can be devastating for morale and school buildings alike. So fire safety should be a priority in your school and to help focus your efforts we provide two must-read guides to vital aspects of fire safety: Arson Prevention and effective Fire Risk Assessments.
Fire risk assessments
Who should carry out the fire risk assessments in our school?
Under the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order (RRFSO) 2005, the ‘Responsible Person’ is responsible for compliance, i.e. the head teacher or premises manager assesses risk, and takes responsibility for premises fire safety. A ‘Competent Person’ (i.e. a consultant) can support the ‘Responsible Person’ in this task. More complex premises invariably need assessment by a fire risk specialist.
Remember, in many schools, facilities may be hired out for a separate function (say a conference). The fire safety responsibilities of those organising the separate function, and those for the remainder of the building, need to be established as part of the hire contract, with the legal duties made clear to the responsible person for each event.
How often should we carry out a risk assessment?
You should constantly monitor the implementation of the fire risk assessment, to assess how effectively the risk is being controlled. If you have any reason to suspect that your fire risk assessment is no longer suitable or there has been a significant change in your premises that has affected your fire precautions, you will need to review your assessment and, if necessary, revise it.
Reasons for review could include: fire system failures; significant increase in building occupants; changes to work activities or introduction of new equipment; change of use for premises; building alterations; changes to furniture and fixings; storage of hazardous substances; the presence of people with some form of disability.
How can we identify ‘vulnerable people’?
You need to consider people with mobility impairment, or hearing loss, or vision impairment; students with language difficulties (e.g. overseas students from a non-English speaking country); employees who work alone and/or in isolated areas (e.g. cleaners and security staff); people who may delay leaving the premises for some other reason (e.g. very young children or babies in a crèche, those with special needs or the elderly, and so on).
What should the risk assessment involve?
You need to identify who is at risk and why they are at risk and record your findings. Identify where you have staff or students working, wherever they are in the premises, including unsupervised areas. You will also need to consider others at risk, such as members of the public, visiting contractors, etc., and where these people are likely to be found.
You need to identify potential fire hazards, such as sources of ignition and any materials that might fuel a fire. You should look for any situation that may present an opportunity for arson, deliberate ignition, or intrusion.
How can we identify fire hazards?
Every effort should be made to reduce the opportunity for an intruder to start a fire. Arsonists seldom bring combustible items with them but tend to use what is available on site.
You need to identify any things that will burn reasonably easily and are in enough quantity to provide fuel for a fire. Some of the most common ‘fuels’ found in educational premises are: cooking oils in food technology areas; solvents and adhesives used in workshops; chemicals from labs or photographic dark rooms; cleaning products or photocopier chemicals; displays of teaching materials; costumes, props and scenery in drama departments; and so on. (This is NOT a comprehensive list, of course.)
How can we remove or reduce risk?
Remember, the means of escape from your premises in the event of fire should never be compromised! In a real fire emergency, a wedged open door will allow smoke and flames to spread rapidly with the risk of life-threatening injuries. It follows, then, that having closed doors or door with retainers will help contain any fire or smoke within the room of origin, or at the very least, slow down the rate of fire growth.
You can reduce subsequent losses and disruption resulting from a fire by preparing a disaster recovery plan. Such a plan will pay dividends in the event of a serious fire, whether started accidentally or deliberately.
What is best practice to communicate the results of the risk assessment?
The findings of your Fire Risk Assessment will help you to develop your Emergency Plan for the instruction, information and training you need to provide, together with the co-operation and co-ordination arrangements required for other responsible people, and the routines for maintenance and testing of the fire precautions.
The purpose of an Emergency Plan is to ensure that staff know what to do if there is a fire and that the premises can be safely evacuated.
Arson Prevention
What are the main ways in which we can prevent arson on our school site?
If you have external combustible storage within your school grounds, consider removal and storage elsewhere. Litterbins should be emptied and at the end of each school day. Deliberately started school fires which occur during school-time are more likely to occur between 1pm and 1.59pm. The majority of deliberately started school-time school fires occurring internally start in a cloakroom. Staff should be made aware of the danger of children being unsupervised in cloakrooms and corridors.
Fire Safety Awareness sessions, including the risks of malicious calls, should be held at regular intervals. Children should be told regularly that cigarette lighters and matches are not allowed in schools. Any breach should be treated as a serious disciplinary matter. Regular fire drills should be undertaken as part of the Risk Assessment and records of them should be kept.
Who can support us in educating pupils about fire safety and reducing petty arson attacks?
Head teachers should consider making fire safety risks a part of everyday school life. All fires, no matter how small, should be reported to the Fire Brigade. Even minor waste bin fires, often not considered significant enough to report, should be reported so solutions to prevent further occurrences can be found.
Advice is available on any of these issues from your Fire Brigade, your specialist fire safety consultant or your insurance company.
What should we do to reduce the risk of fires spreading when the school is unoccupied?
Stores in and around the school that contain combustible materials should be kept locked. Stores that contain chemicals and hazardous materials, often adjacent to chemistry labs, should be kept locked. The Fire Brigade should be advised of the location of such rooms for their records.
Waste bins and wheelie bins should be located well away from the buildings, preferably in locked compounds. Waste skips used for any purpose should be located well away from buildings but not near perimeter fences or walls. Other deterrents include good quality energy efficient dusk to dawn lighting, which is vandal resistant. Avoid high lighting levels, which may produce dark shadows that offer concealment. Roofs generally and their approaches should be assessed for means to inhibit casual access and to avoid hiding places for intruders.
This outline guidance offers broad pointers to best practice only; its relevance can only be determined by site-specific risk assessments.
Our thanks to Fireco for these useful guidelines. Fireco are fire consultants to a number of major UK organisations, assisting them to meet their responsibilities for Fire Risk Assessment through the company's training and consultancy services.
For more information contact Fireco on 0845 241 7474
e-mail sales@firecoltd.com or visit www.firecoltd.com