School Fire Risk Assessments - Find a freedom of information request

I am seeking to understand how many schools have been impacted by fires and whether sprinklers were present:

1. How many fires at schools have you attended in the last five full years (2014-2019 or nearest period, if not available). Please provide a breakdown per year?

2. Of the school fires you attended in this period, how many had sprinklers fitted?

3. Please provide a breakdown of the causes of fire by year.

4. For each year, please also provide a breakdown of:

a. Type of school e.g. primary, secondary

b. Any injuries or deaths

c. Extent of damage to school

d. Age of school

e. Whether cladding was present

f. How many of the schools at the time the fire broke out had received a low, medium or high fire risk assessment (or alternative classification if used)?

5. How many school fire risk assessments have you carried out in the last five full years (2014- 2019 or alternative period if not available)?

6. Please provide a breakdown of the outcomes e.g. low, medium, high risk.

1.

• 2014 – 6
• 2015 - 6
• 2016 - 9
• 2017 - 4
• 2018 – 6
• 2019 - 5

2. In 34 out of the 36 fires recorded, no sprinklers were fitted. In two cases it is unknown whether sprinklers were fitted.

3. 31 accidental. Four deliberate. One not known.

4.

a.
2014:

• Three Infant/Primary Schools
• Three Secondary Schools

2015:

• Two Infant/Primary Schools
• Four Secondary Schools

2016:

• Three Infant/Primary Schools
• Six Secondary Schools

2017:

• Two Infant/Primary Schools
• Two Secondary Schools

2018:

• Three Infant/Primary Schools
• Three Secondary Schools

2019:

• Four Infant/Primary Schools
• One Secondary School

b.
2014:

• Three persons suffered slight burns. No hospital treatment required.

2015:

• None.

2016:

• One person suffered smoke inhalation.

2017:

• None.

2018:

• None.

2019:

• None.

c.
2014:

• Five – up to 5sqm of damage
• One – 101-200sqm of damage

2015:

• Six - up to 5sqm of damage

2016:

• Five – up to 5sqm of damage
• One – 6-10sqm of damage
• Two – 11-20sqm of damage
• One – 21-50sqm of damage

2017:

• Four – up to 5sqm of damage

2018:

• Six – up to 5sqm of damage

2019:

• Five – up to 5sqm of damage

d. Lincolnshire County Council does not hold recorded information.

e. Zero (for all years).

f. Please see the answer below to question 5 – we are unable to provide a figure as it is not mandatory that schools use Lincolnshire fire and Rescue (LFR) for the risk assessments.

5. Please note that schools are responsible for carrying out their own risk assessments. LFR worked with Lincolnshire County Council for a two year period to provide schools the opportunity for Fire and Rescue to carry out a risk assessment for their premises. This was done between 2013 and 2015. In this time 90 risk assessments were completed by LFR. It was not mandatory that the schools used LFR for the risk assessments and they had the option to procure this from another contractor. Any actions that are identified from risk assessments are the responsibility of the school to action, as the responsible person for their site.

6. From the 90 risk assessments that were completed, one was high risk, 76 were medium risk and 13 were low risk.