Figures reveal 48 blazes at West Yorkshire schools started deliberately in last five years

In the last five years firefighters have been called to 139 blazes at schools in West Yorkshire, with 48 of those logged as being started deliberately.

It was as recent as April police recorded an arson attack at West Vale Primary School, on Stainland Road, Halifax.

Tilden Watson, Zurich Municipal’s Head of Education, said: “An alarming number of school buildings pose a high fire risk - yet many are poorly protected against a potential blaze."

The data taken from a Freedom of Information request to West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, which serves Calderdale and Kirklees has been released by Zurich Municipal, the leading insurer of schools in the UK, as it launches a campaign calling for a law change on sprinklers in schools.

Mr Watson said: "Unless Ministers bring England into line with other parts of the UK, large fires will continue to blight schools.

"This is harming children’s education, already severely disrupted as a result of Covid-19, and putting lives at risk.

“As well as protecting pupils, sprinklers drastically reduce the extent of damage when there is a blaze, often confining the fire to a single room."

Sprinklers are proven to significantly reduce the damage caused by fire and are compulsory in all new or major refurbished school buildings in Scotland and Wales, but this is not the case in England.

They are fitted in fewer than one in six new schools, according to Labour party figures.

“It costs far more to repair fire-ravaged schools than it does to install sprinklers. Even so, cash strapped schools cannot be expected to pick up the bill," said Mr Watson.

"The government’s Covid-19 investment is a critical opportunity to ensure schools are more resilient to fire.

"Unless minsters change the law on sprinklers, much of this funding will be wasted on repairing the fire damage that sprinklers could have easily prevented.”

Zurich is now urging MPs to review the law and has started a parliamentary petition.

Additional analysis by Zurich goes on to highlight that schools in England are nearly twice as likely to suffer a blaze as other types of commercial building.

Zurich analysed the fire risks posed by 26,866 primary and secondary schools in England and found the average school posed a fire risk times greater than non-residential buildings.

Despite being far riskier than average when it comes to fires, many schools also lack measures to prevent small fires becoming major disasters.

Of more than 1,000 school inspections carried out by Zurich, 66% were rated as having ‘poor’ fixed fire protection systems, such as sprinklers.

A further quarter (24%) were judged ‘poor’ for fire detection measures, such as smoke detectors and fire alarms.

Nick Coombe, Protection Vice Chair and Building Safety Programme Lead for the National Fire Chiefs Council, said: "1,000 fires over five years in buildings where sprinklers were fitted, our research found they controlled or extinguished blazes in 99% of cases.

"Sprinklers can dramatically reduce fire damage, making the reopening of a school much easier.

"This not only minimises the disruption to a pupil’s education, but also the impact on their family, the community and the wider education establishment.”

Nationally, firefighters have been called to nearly 2,000 school blazes in the last three years.

Malfunctioning appliances or equipment, faulty electrics and kitchen blazes are among the leading causes of fire and larger fires in schools cost on average £2.8 million to repair and in some cases over £20 million.

In June, Boris Johnson pledged £1bn to fund a decade long school rebuilding and repair programme and a further £560m in early August.

Zurich wants the government to ring-fence some of this promised investment to improve the resilience of schools at high risk of fire.

Insurers work closely with schools to help them manage their fire risks but the installation of sprinklers minimise the dangers from the outset.