Viewpoint: Government plans to abandon expectations of Sprinklers in new schools
Fire Safety Design for Schools BB100
Since its inception in 2007, the Department for Education’s Building Bulletin 100 (BB100) “Fire Safety Design for Schools” has promoted the installation of Fire Sprinklers in new schools based upon a risk-assessed approach. However, with proposed revisions stating that “BB100 no longer includes an expectation that most new school buildings will be fitted with them”, allegations have been made by senior politicians that the Tory Ministers are stealthily neglecting principles of property protection as a cost-cutting exercise. Others to lambaste the proposed changes include Brian Robinson, Chairman of the Fire Sector Federations, who said that the Government “appears to have relegated the principles of property protection to an afterthought”.
• 5,132 fires in educational buildings between 2003/04 and 2013/14, resulting in 148 casualties (CFOA).
• 119 fires in schools between 2009 and 2014 at a cost in excess of £150 million (FPA).
• Average cost of incident has soared to £2.8M in 2014 (FPA).
These proposed changes come soon after calls were made by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to make sprinklers mandatory in care homes and schools by carrying out a review of building regulations’ Approved Document B. James Dalton, director of general insurance at the ABI, insists that loss of life is inevitable should such revisions not be forthcoming.
Our Experience
Having successfully designed, installed and maintained fire sprinklers in over 50 schools, our experiences show that sprinklers for schools have never been more cost effective. This is largely down to the DfE’s Review of Education Capital published in 2011 and the resultant Baseline Designs introduced by the Government to alleviate costs in order to meet their Priority School Building Programme.
In light of the recent devastation of Selsey Academy due to fire, omission of sprinklers at this point in time would seemingly be a reprehensible step.
