Fire safety in local schools

Abstract

Many local schools have been built with little or no consideration of fire safety and it will require only one, single, serious incident to emphasise the urgency this issue deserves. The aim of this study is to investigate the fire safety levels of existing local primary school buildings. For this purpose, a fire safety assessment of three schools was carried out with the scope of estimating the fire risks present, evaluating the fire precautions provided and, finally, considering the extent to which the precautions balance the risks and how the buildings compare with the appropriate established benchmark. Unfortunately, there is no local document that could give the required guidance with regard to fire safety and legislation covering the matter has been in the pipeline for a number of years in the form of a Fire Act as well as in the Draft Building Regulations that were actually published in August 1995. However, none of these ever came into being so the only alternative available is to follow advice provided in foreign sources. The guidance document that seems to be the most suitable in serving as a benchmark in an assessment of fire safety levels in existing school buildings is a British publication. It is called Fire and the design of educational buildings, Building Bulletin 7 and was first issued in 1952 by the British Department of Education and Science. The latest edition is the sixth edition that was last revised in 1988 and was issued in support of British construction standards. In Britain, this document enjoys a legal status and in effect provides the code of practice for fire safety in educational buildings. The recommendations of the bulletin apply to new construction but are also appropriate in the context of adaptation or remodelling work of existing buildings. The main emphasis of the publication is on precautions to ensure safe escape of occupants in the event of a fire, rather than on those necessary to preserve the building's structure or fabric. However, it does include recommendations having that aim.