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The government has indicated that most new and refurbished schools will need sprinkler protection, although it has stopped short of making this compulsory.
Speaking in the House of Commons, secretary of state for schools, Jim Knight, said new guidance due to be published in the summer – will require local authorities and schools to use a new risk assessment tool to establish whether there is a need for sprinklers.
In response to questioning, he indicated that he expected only a “very few” newly built or refurbished schools would not be deemed to need them, and that he was still considering whether or nor the guidance should have a presumption in favour of sprinklers. His remarks reflected those he made a few days earlier at a seminar hosted by the National Fire Sprinkler Network, which has been spearheading a campaign to make sprinklers compulsory in schools.
According to figures from insurance company Zurich Municipal, only around 1% of schools in the UK are fitted with sprinklers, while school fires cost an estimated GB pound 74 million in 2006 (up from GB pound 67 million in 2005).
A DfES spokesperson told FSE: “Building Bulletin (BB) 100 Designing and Managing Against the Risk of Fire in Schools will be published in early summer. In addition to covering requirements for life safety, it will emphasise the importance of protecting school buildings from fire damage. It will therefore include extensive guidance on sprinklers, stressing their importance as a weapon against arson, and making clear our presumption that all new schools will have them fitted. It will also point to model specifications for their installation.
“The Building Research Establishment has developed two new practical aids for us that will enable local authorities and design teams to make the right decisions. One is an interactive risk assessment tool. Using this, new or existing schools will achieve scores that rank them as high, medium or low risk. The other tool is a cost benefit analysis, which helps the user decide whether sprinklers represent good value for money.”
Alan Brinson of the European Fire Sprinkler Network commented: “We welcome this important change in policy; it is a rare example of an improvement in building fire safety that has not been written in blood. Coupled with the government commitment to rebuild or refurbish all secondary schools the new policy will make our schools much safer for children and staff. It will also contribute to the sustainability of schools by protecting the buildings and contents from fire.”