Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

An analysis has been made of the reports of fires in schools included in a random one-in-four sample of all reports of fires attended by Fire Brigades in England and Wales during 1952. There were 129 incidents in the sample, giving a total frequency of 516 ± 79. Thirty incidents in the sample (23.3 per cent) were due to heating and cooking apparatus, 13 incidents (10 per cent) to radiated heat and sparks from flues, and 13 incidents to blowlamps used by workmen. In the sample of reports examined there were 33 incidents in which the cost of reinstatement was over £10. In seven incidents losses of over £1,000 were sustained and one of these resulted in the total loss of a school and contents valued at £100,000. The total loss in all the 33 incidents amounted to about £134,000.