Zurich Municipal is calling for all schools to be fitted with sprinklers in a new design guide published following a dramatic rise in the cost of fires in Scottish schools.
The total cost of school fires across the UK reached a record £96.6 million in 2002. Analysis of Zurich Municipal's own figures revealed that Scottish schools accounted for 34% of the total nationwide cost of fire damage to schools in 2002 - the first year for which such regional figures have been published.
The new guidance, `The design and protection of new school buildings and sites', has a foreword by Dennis Davis, the Chief Fire Inspector for Scotland.
One of the key recommendations in the report is that all new schools should include a sprinkler system.
Much of the damage to schools caused by fire is unnecessary according to Zurich Municipal. The guide makes a number of recommendations to improve the design of school buildings so that fire spreads less quickly, and security is a greater priority.
The design document contains detailed practical advice on tackling these problems, counters ill-informed reluctance to install sprinkler systems in new and refurbished buildings, and warns against `quick fix' solutions such as CCTV, which on its own cannot prevent arson.
