More than 400 pupils at St Felix Middle School, which was destroyed by fire earlier this month, will start the new term late and will be housed in neighbouring schools until temporary buildings have been erected in the school’s grounds.
Around 70 firefighters tackled the blaze at St Felix Middle School in Newmarket on 5 August, though with strong winds the fire spread too quickly to save the buildings.
A 14 year old boy has been charged with arson.
Commenting on the fire, Stewart Kidd of the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association said: “Since last year, it has been mandatory for new build schools to undertake a full risk analysis to evaluate the need for sprinklers and other fire precautions. There’s no doubt that this fire will have devastated the community which the school served, and other schools must heed the warning.”
According to BAFSA, there are around 30 school fires and up to 20 incidents of arson in schools a week and physical damage to schools cost in excess of GB pound 74 million in 2006. Only around 300 schools out of 28,000 have fire sprinkler systems installed.
