Should all UK schools be fitted with sprinklers?

Simply put, yes. Although an additional cost, sprinklers in schools are perhaps the most important safety feature, making their cost hardly a factor when looking at the bigger picture.

All of our modular buildings, including those tailored for the educational sector, can be fitted with sprinklers. Our blog tells you why sprinklers in schools should be a necessity, not just a consideration.

There are thought to be approximately 700 school fires a year in England alone. Therefore, it’s no wonder that the London Fire Brigade Commissioner claims that The Department of Education is playing with children’s lives by not having sprinklers as an indispensable safety feature in all schools. Less than one-third of 260 new schools built since 2014 have had sprinklers fitted – a staggering statistic that begs the question, why?

Sprinklers in schools save lives

In recent years, the debate over why sprinklers haven’t been installed in schools has been rife in the media. Considering that water is one of the best, all-round substances for tackling fires, why aren’t sprinklers installed as standard? Sprinklers are automated and triggered by heat, this means that should a fire break out, the sprinklers will be of the first to respond, acting as a soggy, but effective(!) warning to evacuate the building, as well as tackling the fire itself and potentially saving lives.

Sprinklers reduce fire damage to the school

The worst-case scenario is a fire starting during school hours when there are both pupils and teachers in the school – not to mention the many support staff. But fires cannot be predicted, and whilst a fire during working hours is terrible, someone can quickly call the fire brigade and hopefully the fire can be contained. Out of hours, a fire could go for minutes, maybe even hours without being reported, and with only a fire alarm to alert someone, the damage caused before it’s extinguished could be catastrophic, not to mention expensive.

To cut a long story short, schools are responsible for not only the education of students, but their safety, and without proper thought out safety measures, it’s impossible to claim fire safety is suitable. Put it this way, if a school was to become lazy with its teaching, something would have to be done. So, why should they be allowed to become ‘lazy’ with their fire safety?

With the opinion that sprinklers should become a mandatory safety feature across all UK schools, perhaps now is the time to step ahead and install them. Contact a member of our team today to discuss the installation of sprinklers into your modular building.