7 April 2004 - New Schools NOT To Have Sprinkler Systems Installed
The Government’s fire modernisation strategy has been criticised by the Local Government Association (LGA) for failing to specify that all newly built schools should be installed with sprinkler systems.
The LGA says the government’s “policy mistake” currently costs UK schools £100 million a year in fire damage and that the Government’s new risk-based approach to fire safety should have resulted in building regulations to ensure all newly built schools are installed with sprinkler systems.
The LGA says that the Government’s £5.1 billion schools project “Building Better Schools”, has no intention of including sprinklers as a design requirement in the new buildings.
The LGA states that:
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every year in the UK over 2000 schools are damaged by fire
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70% of these fires are started deliberately
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by 2001, school fires were costing the nation nearly £100 million in damage alone
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the chances of a school suffering a fire large enough to require action by the fire service is one in 15, i.e. one in every 15 schools each year suffer a fire large enough to require the fire service.
