Most business people find it hard to believe that many schools, even many new ones, don’t have sprinklers as part of their fire protection system.

The argument about the benefits have raged for years with Chief Fire Officers saying they should be installed and Local Authorities and the DfES claiming this would simply be too expensive. Insurance is part of the issue as is the fact that with increasing amounts of IT equipment a faulty system or false alarm can cause expensive damage and potentially cause electrical risks. Equally compelling is the argument that sprinklers keep fires small and do far less damage to equipment than the huge volumes of water from fire hoses.

As with all school construction issues, the DfES is ‘reviewing its guidance’ on this issue but this is not expected to be published until later in the year. Back in 2005 we reported that HM Chief Inspector of Fire Services (now called the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor’s Unit), estimated that arson in schools was costing over £100m p.a. The estimate for 2007 is that the cost of arson in UK schools will probably exceed £300m! With an average of almost 40 school fires per week and with £45bn being spent on BSF, it’s amazing that the DfES has not acted more swiftly or decisively to address this issue.