Fires in schools
Our Ref: 27 August 2020 - NY5466
I write in connection with your request for information that was received by the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire (OPFCC) on 10th July 2020. Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with a response.
I note you seek access to the following information:
Under Freedom of Information Act, I would be very grateful if you could provide the following information. 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
Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within the OPFCC.
I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by the OPFCC.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you:
- 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.
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| 4 | 11 | 8 | 15 | 15 | 11 |
- Of the school fires you attended in this period, how many had sprinklers fitted?
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
- Please provide a breakdown of the causes of fire by year.
4a. For each year, please also provide a breakdown of type of school e.g. primary, secondary
| School type | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Boarding School | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| University | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Pre School/Nursery | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Primary School | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Secondary School | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| Other | 1 | 1 |
4b. Any injuries or deaths
There were no injuries or deaths recorded at these properties from 2014 – 2019.
4c. Extent of damage to school
| Extent of damage to school | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Up to 5 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 6 – 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 11 – 20 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 21 – 50 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 51 – 100 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 101 – 200 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 201 – 500 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 501 – 1,000 | 1 | |||||
| None | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | ||
| NULL (Not recorded) | 3 | 4 | 2 |
4d. Age of school
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service does not record this information.
4e. Whether cladding was present
I have taken some time to consider this question as this information is not currently available within an existing report. We have enquired as to whether a report could be created in order to extract this data, however this is not feasible within a reasonable time frame for a response. We are therefore left with the option of manually checking every school fire within the time period requested.
The Service calculates that it would take approximately 5 minutes to retrieve, check and record this information for each of the 312 school properties which suffered fires.
This equates to 26 hours (5 minutes x 312 properties). This section of your request is therefore exempt pursuant to Section 12 of the Act on the grounds that we estimate that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit at the present time is £450.00 which equates to eighteen hours of work by a member of staff at the rate of £25.00 per hour
We are, however, able to tell you that of the fires that were in schools that had undergone a recent fire safety audit, none were recorded as having cladding fitted.
4f. 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)?
| Fire Safety Audit Outcome | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 |
| Very High | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| High | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Medium | 6 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 |
| Low | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Very Low | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
- 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)?
| Fire Safety Audit Outcome | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 |
| 33 | 67 | 109 | 64 | 27 | 12 |
- Please provide a breakdown of the outcomes e.g. low, medium, high risk
| Breakdown of outcomes | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 |
| Very High | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| High | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Medium | 21 | 35 | 53 | 26 | 19 | 6 |
| Low | 11 | 27 | 53 | 37 | 6 | 5 |
| Very Low | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that the OPFCC’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.