School Fires - High Loss Examples

[Graeme]

would need to be an L1/P1 system

P2 for arson attack

[alexl]

either a L2 or P2 system would be sufficient and as long as that system was designed, installed & commisioned by competent persons the problem of unwanted calls caused by equipment would be almost nil

The problem of unwanted calls (malicious) can be solved by putting covers on call points situated in problem areas.

In the fire action plan when the school is occupied then any signal should be followed up by a 999 call however at times when the school is unoccupied then the system would cover.

[Tom Sutton]

it may surprise you to know tom that most arson attacks take place when the school is occupied by the inmates themselves !

That does suprise me, when I was serving I attented many school fires and with out exception all the fires in schools hours were acidental with only little damage. The ones when the shool was closed were arson with severe damage and some ended up as car parks. Security was Poor. This was 10+ years ago it looks like things have changed.

A posibility is because of the increased security in schools the vandals are having to confine there attacks during school hours.

Tom

[Chris Houston]

Most of the big fires happen at night, but obviously all fires start as small fires, it's just the night time ones don't get noticed as quickly.

There is no doubt, however, that the trend towards more daytime fires is a recent trend.

[Owen66]

Statistics for school time fires were published by the Arson Prevention Bureau.      ( 2003?)

They conclude the number of school time arson incidents rose from 13% to 31% of all arson fires in the period 1990 to 2000

At the same time the overall number of arson fires declined.

Source; School Arson: Education Under Threat

Regards

Owen

[ianmoore4102]

I am begining to resarch a dissertation on how the future direction of school design will affect fire protection system design.  Can anyone point me in the direction of current reading materials, research and statistics.

[Chris Houston]

The future of school design will ensure that the large losses continue, open plan spaces, use of "renewable" timber.  Zurich Municipal have a wealth of information on this, if you PM me I can recommend a few contacts as I used to work there.