Rebuilding Schools: The Value of Fire Protection

The impact of fire on schools is not just about the immediate damage. It’s also about the disruption to the educational process. A fire in a school can set lessons back for weeks, if not months. Even a small fire can wreak havoc on a community, displacing hundreds of students and forcing members of the teaching staff to juggle logistics and temporary accommodations for long periods of time.

For many schools, notably so those already operating on tight budgets, the costs of fire-related disruption can be overwhelming.

Lessons in sprinklers

On 8 January, crews from the Swansea West and Swansea Central Fire and Rescue Service responded to a fire at Sketty Primary School. The fire, which could have caused significant damage, was swiftly contained by the building’s sprinkler system. Within hours, the school was back to normal, with minimal disruption to students or staff.

In contrast, fires at St Michael’s Primary School in South Gloucestershire and the Otley Primary School in Ipswich caused major disruption. The fire at St Michael’s last December destroyed parts of the establishment, leaving it “literally in pieces”, while the fire at the Otley Primary School one day later spread to the roof, causing weeks of disruption.

In both cases, it has been a struggle to ‘get back on track’, with classes being relocated and lesson schedules thrown off course. Otley Primary School has been forced to relocate students to other schools and rely on online learning for many of its classes.

These very recent fires clearly show how the presence (or absence) of fire sprinkler systems can drastically affect the recovery time after a fire. Sketty Primary School was back in business the following day, while schools like St Michael’s Primary School and Otley Primary School continue to face lingering disruptions.

Threat of fire

Many commentators will point to statistics to demonstrate trends regarding the reduction or increase in fires. However, what’s often overlooked is the small population of schools we have, so the frequency of incidents is high.

For secondary schools, the chance of a fire occurring in any given year is approaching 5%, which is high. Thinking that through, the chance of a secondary school having a fire in ten years on that basis is 40%.

We often refer to a 2020 study conducted by Zurich Municipal, which revealed alarming statistics: over the past five years, more than 2,300 fires had occurred in schools across the UK. This resulted in significant educational disruption, with as many as 390,000 teaching hours potentially lost in a single year.

The financial impact of this is also concerning, with the average repair bill for a major fire running at somewhere in the region of £2.9 million. Indeed, substantial fires can rack up costs of up to £20 million.

Of course, lots of people pick up on the point of a major fire. One can derive some balance by looking at the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) put in place by Government as an alternative to insurance for schools. It publishes figures on the average size of fire claims over the years that it has been in operation.

Many would be surprised to learn that the average cost of a fire event within the RPA was £426,365 in the academic year 2022-2023. Let that sink in: the average cost of fire events that result in a claim within the RPA is over £425,000. This figure was above £350,000 in the preceding two academic years and is forecast to be upwards of £300,000 in the academic year 2023-2024.

True costs

It’s clear that fire protection isn’t just about saving buildings. It’s also about protecting our children’s education and our communities. Schools are not only places where children learn. They are also community hubs that host events, meetings and activities to the benefit of many. A fire can disrupt both the school’s operations and the wider local community.

However, fewer than one-in-six newly built schools are being equipped with fire sprinkler systems. This is a worrying trend, given that the impact from the RPA numbers alone are high. They suggest that schools are more likely to be struck by fire than most other types of buildings.

While many schools are built at low cost, often without truly considering long-term resilience, this short-sightedness comes with high costs when disaster strikes. When schools are built without fire sprinkler systems or other resilience measures, we are essentially gambling on their survival. If we invested appropriately in fire protection from the outset, including sprinkler systems, we could avoid these disastrous disruptions (or, at least, minimise their impact).

Question of priorities

The questions we need to ask are this: ‘Are we investing properly in the long-term resilience of our children’s schools or just building as cost-effectively as possible and hoping they will survive the next 30 years without incident?’ ‘Is this just a financial question or is it about the impact on those in education when a fire occurs?’

The recent statistics should serve as a wake-up call. With more fires occurring in schools and the cost of damage increasing, it’s time to prioritise fire protection as part of any rebuilding or new construction project.

The installation of fire sprinklers could potentially curtail fire outbreaks and significantly reduce the resultant damage, in turn realising minimal disruption to education. The cost of sprinklers would be a small fraction of the cost and impact wrought by a fire and therefore represents strong value for money over the life of the school properties.

By including fire sprinkler systems in the rebuild of our schools, we are not only safeguarding buildings. We are also safeguarding education, the heart of our communities and the future of our children.

Thomas Roche is Secretary of the Business Sprinkler Alliance (www.business-sprinkler-alliance.org)