Buildings in the education sector come in for some very specific fire protection regulations, as you might expect in environments that are heavily populated by children and young people as well as adults.
The Government’s guide to fire protection in educational buildings extends to some 147 pages, so there isn’t the space here to discuss the fine detail, but we’ve separated out the basic requirements and obligations – and the critical part that passive fire protection (PFP), in particular, plays in them – below.
Where do fire regulations for educational premises apply?
It’s important for those responsible for educational premises to know that the fire protection regulations apply to every definition of schools in the conventional sense – from nursery schools to primary and secondary schools, academies to free schools, special schools to pupil referral units.
But it’s also critical to understand that the definitions also go much further than this, comprising, according to the Government’s guidance, colleges, universities, Sunday schools, crèches, adult education centres, after-school clubs, outdoor education centres and music schools.
In short, if you manage or are responsible for – or are seen by The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in any way as a “responsible person” with regard to any building where “the main use of the building or part of the building is an educational premises”, you will be liable for any shortcomings in that building’s fire protection.
At Commercial Fire Protection we have extensive experience within the education sector, recently working with Oaklands School in Welwyn Garden City, Seckford Foundation in Ipswich and the Latymer School in London. You can see a case study of the fire door inspection work we carried out recently at the Latymer School, a centuries-old grammar school in London, here.
What are the requirements in existing buildings?
All the educational premises mentioned above are required to undertake fire risk assessments “to identify the general fire precautions needed to safeguard the safety of occupants in case of fire, including their safe means of escape.”
As a bare minimum, this means ensuring (and being able to prove):
- Procedures are in place to reduce the likelihood of fire
- Fire detection and alarm systems have been maintained
- Staff and pupils are familiar with emergency evacuation procedures
- Fire risk assessments have not only been carried out, but have been kept up to date
- Fire precautions remain current and adequate (and have been reviewed in detail when alterations are made to a school’s premises)
Where can fire safety compliance fail?
Fire safety compliance can be compromised in many ways, but the last two points above are, in particular, often where those who own or are responsible for non-residential buildings fall foul of the law.
This is typically because they don’t take into the account the effect on fire safety of buildings evolving over time, whether through refurbishment, change of layout (putting in partitions to create two classrooms out of one, for instance), or inadvertent breaches to existing PFP (drilling a firewall to run a cable through, for example, or replacing a fire door hinge with a non-compliant type).
It becomes a vicious circle; changes to a building cause it to become non-compliant for fire safety, and failure to regularly update fire risk assessments to uncover the negative impacts of such changes means further changes proceed without scrutiny… and the cycle repeats.
The potential costs in terms of loss and life and limb are, of course, horrific. But there can be other devastating outcomes too. Insurers can and do refuse to cover fire damage where fire risk assessments cannot recently prove the existence of adequate PFP and other compliant fire protection measures.
And inadequate PFP is surprisingly common. As just one illustration of the fact, in a recent survey, 76% of fire doors in the UK failed their inspections, as we explored in this post.
How many of those were in educational premises? The figures don’t tell, but the law of averages does…
What about new buildings?
For new builds in the education sector, the normal source of compliance with building regulations for fire safety design in new educational buildings is Building Bulletin 100: design for fire safety in schools.
Again, this is a lengthy set of documents and tools, but the PFP measures that are specified within it (and that satisfy most insurers’ demands for compliance) include, amongst others:
- Fire-resisting and smoke-restricting construction elements (these can include those treated with intumescent coatings)
- Features that limit the spread of flames and smoke (these include fire-stopping partitions, ceilings, floors, doors, and other fire compartmentation solutions)
- Features that prevent or limit fire and smoke from exploiting cavities, and services or ventilation ductwork (these can include fire-stopping measures and correctives such as intumescent foam, and breach fixes)
Make your educational premises fire-compliant
Between 2020 – 2021, the UK fire department was called out to 11,916 primary fire incidents in non-residential buildings, and, of these, 333 were in educational premises.
If you can’t state with absolute certainty that your educational building’s PFP is compliant, and you have passed a recent fire risk assessment to prove it, you’ve a lesson to learn – before it’s too late.
For more information on how we can help, get in touch today.
