School Fire Safety Made Simple: Insights from our Expert

This blog is based on Judicium’s Health and Safety ‘Sofa Session’ from the 17th of September, with our resident expert Jim Liddy.

Fire safety in schools is crucial and involves a multi-faceted approach encompassing risk assessments, preventative measures, and emergency plans. Schools must prioritise fire prevention by managing flammable materials, maintaining electrical equipment, ensuring fire doors are operational, and ensuring compartmentation levels are suitable, particularly in high-risk areas. They also require robust fire detection and alarm systems, as well as clear evacuation procedures, which include regular fire drills.

Fire safety in schools is crucial and involves a multi-faceted approach encompassing risk assessments, preventative measures, and emergency plans. Schools must prioritise fire prevention by managing flammable materials, maintaining electrical equipment, ensuring fire doors are operational, and ensuring compartmentation levels are suitable, particularly in high-risk areas. They also require robust fire detection and alarm systems, as well as clear evacuation procedures, including regular fire drills.

It is estimated that there are over 1500 fires in educational premises each year.

Poll 1

Primary School Arson attack

In August 2023, during the last week of the school’s summer holidays, a fire was deliberately started in the external nursery play area of a primary school in Hartlepool. Three fire engines and crews were required to bring the fire under control. The Nursery block suffered extensive fire damage, and due to the school having open voids above the ceiling space, smoke quickly spread to the rest of the school, causing smoke damage.

The school was unable to open for the start of the new term, and pupils had to be bused to nearby schools until refurbishment work was completed.

The nursery was finally rebuilt 12 months later.

The most common cause of school fires in the UK is arson, accounting for roughly 60% of all school fires. This includes intentional fires set by students or others, often during school holidays when the buildings are less occupied. While arson is the leading cause, accidental fires, particularly due to faulty electrical equipment, also contribute significantly to the problem.

What measures can be taken? 

Ensure perimeter fencing is maintained in good order to deter unauthorised access to your site.
Install CCTV that covers all areas, including blind spots.
Stores in and around the school that contain combustible materials should be kept locked.
Waste bins and wheelie bins should be located well away from the buildings, preferably in locked compounds.

Poll 2

Fire Compartmentation

Compartmentation in fire safety is a passive fire protection strategy that divides a building into separate, fire-resistant compartments to contain fires and prevent their spread. This is achieved by using fire-resistant walls, floors, doors, and other barriers to limit the spread of smoke, heat, and flames. The goal is to protect occupants, escape routes, and limit property damage.

Many old schools (and some new builds) have identified compartmentation breaches in walls following the installation of cables for IT equipment or fire detection systems.

Open voids are another common hazard identified that often goes unnoticed, particularly above suspended ceiling tiles. It can pose a significant fire risk if not properly managed. These voids can allow fire and smoke to spread rapidly, often without warning, potentially compromising escape routes and delaying fire brigade access. A fire risk assessment should thoroughly evaluate these voids, looking for potential ignition sources, fuel sources, and the effectiveness of any fire compartmentation measures.

Regulatory reform - Why have a fire safety policy? 

We start with the legal framework that defines what we need to manage. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the law requires you to have a formal Fire Safety Policy and is an important part of your fire safety management system.

It will demonstrate the organisation's fire safety procedures and what actions people should take in the event of fire. This will ensure the safety of employees, students and any visitors to the premises, from the dangers of fire. The policy should be reviewed periodically & signed off by the Responsible Person.

The contents of the policy are usually broken down into two areas Organisation and Arrangements.

Organisation

• Management Responsibilities
• Roles, Responsibilities, and Duties of Staff
• Contractors’ duties

 Arrangements

• Fire Risk Assessment
• Fire Management System
• Planning
• Emergency Evacuation Plan
• Hirers and Extended School Providers
• Communication and Cooperation with other Responsible Persons
• Organisational Chart

To manage fire safety, the policy identifies your legal remit, which staff require specific responsibilities within your school and what their duties are.

Identifying staff responsibilities falls into two areas:

• 1) the responsible person who has control over the premises,
• 2) the competent persons, those who assist in the preventative and protection measures.

By identifying, allocating and defining staff roles and responsibilities for managing fire, you will also need to complete a Training Needs Analysis to identify who needs what level of training to be competent in their role.

Training can come in the form of e-learning modules for general fire safety awareness and fire warden training and refresher training, face to face training courses for leadership and those that manage fire safety on a day-to-day basis, e.g. headteachers, H&S leads, premises staff.

Competent Fire Risk Assessments

A FRA identifies fire hazards, assesses the risks, and recommends actions to mitigate those risks. It is a proactive approach that helps schools prevent fire incidents or limit their damage.

Using accredited assessors ensures compliance with legal standards and provides thorough, up-to-date fire risk assessments. Schools benefit by ensuring they meet their legal obligations, avoid potential fines, and reduce the risk of fire incidents.

Judicium is a BAFE SPF 205 – certified provider. So what is BAFE? BAFE (British Approvals for Fire Equipment) is a registration body for companies that provide certified fire safety services. Accreditation ensures that FRAs are conducted to the highest industry standards.

Understanding BS 8674:2025

Published on 15 August 2025, BS 8674:2025 introduces a new, industry-backed framework to define and assess the competence of individual fire risk assessors working across the built environment. Unlike standards that set out how to conduct a fire risk assessment, BS 8674 focuses on who is carrying them out—outlining the knowledge, skills, and behaviours needed to perform assessments effectively and consistently.

The standard sets out three levels of competence:

• Foundation – for simpler, low-risk buildings with minimal occupancy.
• Intermediate – for moderately complex buildings with broader use types.
• Advanced – for high-risk or complex environments such as care homes, high-rise residential blocks, or public venues.
  This tiered approach recognises the different expertise required to manage risk across a wide range of building types.

BS 8674 is designed for individual assessors, but it’s equally valuable for Responsible Persons under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and Building Safety Act 2022, as well as employers, building owners, accreditation bodies, and training providers. By setting clear, measurable benchmarks, the standard helps organisations choose qualified professionals while giving assessors a recognised career framework to demonstrate and develop their expertise.

Although this framework offers much-needed clarity, there are still grey areas in interpretation and implementation. That’s why working with BAFE-certified companies is so important—certification ensures assessors are operating to recognised, audited standards and gives you confidence you’re meeting BS 8674’s expectations.

In practice, BS 8674 provides reassurance that fire risk assessments are carried out competently, supporting compliance, safety, and trust. While it doesn’t replace the need for process-focused standards, it is a key piece of the puzzle in raising accountability and reducing variability in fire safety practice, an essential step forward in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Poll 4 

Occupancy Levels 

Occupancy levels in relation to fire safety are crucial for ensuring safe evacuation during a fire. They determine the maximum number of people allowed in a space based on factors like exit widths, the number of exits, and the building's fire risk. Understanding and managing occupancy levels helps prevent overcrowding and ensures everyone can exit the building safely and efficiently in an emergency.

Key Factors in Determining Occupancy Levels:

Exit Width - The width of doors and escape routes directly impacts how many people can safely exit a building. A wider exit can accommodate more people. For example, a fire door with a width of 160 cm can accommodate the evacuation of 310 persons.

Number of Exits - More exits mean more potential escape routes, allowing for a higher occupancy level. Rooms/Halls with only one exit are limited to a lower occupancy of 60 persons. You must also consider whether the exit doors are inward-facing, as these are limited to 60 persons. Also, when calculating occupancy levels, it's crucial to assume that the largest exit might be blocked by a fire, and ensure that the remaining exits are sufficient to evacuate all occupants.

Area Calculation - The available area of a room or space also plays a role. A larger space can generally accommodate more people, but this is always in conjunction with exit capacity and fire safety measures, and what activity is being conducted, for example, A hall used for assemblies (seated on the floor) uses the calculation of the hall's square meterage divided by 0.45. If chairs and tables are used in the hall, then this reduction in space must be factored into the calculations.

Key Takeaways

Ensure your Fire Risk Assessment is completed by someone who is competent to do so.
Understand the most common cause of fires in schools and what actions to take to mitigate this.
Understand the importance of having an up-to-date Fire safety policy
Determine the levels of fire compartmentation within your school building, including areas above false ceilings.   
Commission a qualified contractor to conduct a compartmentation survey.
Understand the occupancy levels for areas within your school building that would generally accommodate more than 60 persons. 

Judicium Education can help

If your school needs support, to ensure your schools programme is legally compliant, we’re here to help.

Judicium Education’s Health and Safety and Fire Safety Service is designed to support schools, firstly, in ensuring a safe working and learning environment, secondly, in complying with the legal requirements imposed on them as employers under the various Health & Safety laws and regulations. For more information, please visit here.

If you require any support in any of these steps or would like to talk to someone surrounding some support for your school or trust, please do not hesitate to call us on 0207 336 8403 or email Georgina.decosta@judicium.com.

If you’d like to review Judicium’s forthcoming sofa sessions please click here

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