Fire safety is imperative in any building but is especially so in schools. When a fire breaks out in an office or residential building, problems can arise with adults not knowing the process for evacuation, or even how to stay safe. So for a school, it’s incredibly important to ensure fire safety standards are exceptionally high. Continue reading our guide below for five ways to maintain fire safety in school buildings.
Fire safety in schools
According to Gov.uk, fires in schools are rare and fewer than one in 1,000 school buildings are damaged by fire each year. This is testament to the work that schools and the Department of Education do to ensure the fire safety of students, teachers and other members of staff.
In fact, all schools in the UK are required to have a fire safety plan called a Fire Safety Risk Assessment (FSRA). School fire risk assessments vary from school to school, but they should all have some things in common. For example, all schools must have regular fire drills to make sure all occupants of the building – teachers, students and other staff members – are well aware of the procedure if a fire takes place.
Fire wardens must also be chosen and be made clear to everyone, so they can take notice of their instructions during a fire drill. The guidance for a school fire risk assessment is set by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
The guidance states the below:
- Fire safety plans must be in place to reduce the likelihood of fire
- Fire detection and alarm systems must be maintained
- Staff and pupils must be familiar with emergency evacuation plans
- Fire assessments must be kept up to date
- If there are any changes to the building, all fire precautions must be reviewed
Tips for maintaining fire safety in schools
At a school, there are a wide range of steps you can take to ensure fire safety for children and adults in the building. Here’s a list of some tips we believe are vital to preventing a fire in a school building:
- Fire risk assessments
- Fire door checks
- No smoking policy
- Regularly dispose of waste
- Ensure furniture is fire retardant
Fire risk assessments
All schools should carry out a fire risk assessment of the premises. To ensure fire safety in school buildings, a risk assessment must be completed to identify fire hazards, reduce the risk of those hazards, and decide which precautions are necessary to ensure fire safety.
Fire door checks
A vital part of a building’s fire safety is its fire doors. Employing fire door checks is an important step in ensuring all fire doors are in full working order and will work during a fire. A fire door inspection will create a survey report that highlights any deficiencies and remedial action required to bring fire doors within legal tolerances.
The report will include photographs and each door will be tagged with a unique ID for easy identification if any issues arise in future.
No smoking policy
Another step to be taken that can ensure fire safety in schools is to promote a no smoking policy on the grounds. A lit cigarette left near flammable items on school property can cause immeasurable damage, so stopping it altogether is the best step available (not to mention the public health benefits to students and staff).
Regularly dispose of waste
With a school holding so many students and members of staff, there is bound to be a large amount of waste on a daily basis. If this is not disposed of properly and separately from the building, it could potentially cause a fire.
Ensure furniture is fire retardant
Our final tip is to ensure that all furniture within the school building is fire retardant. It goes without saying, but any furniture that’s not fire retardant will easily catch fire, further spreading it and causing more danger to occupants of the building.
Fire retardant fittings and furniture will cause a fire to burn slowly, giving everybody enough time to escape to safety.
Fire safety in schools at NW Fire Solutions
Ensure your school is fire safe by going to NW Fire Solutions for your fire safety needs. We can perform fire risk assessments and fire door checks. We can also perform fire stopping surveys.
If you’d like to speak to NW Fire Solutions, don’t hesitate to contact us today on 0151 665 0124.