Fire

The devastating effect that fire has on our communities was dramatically illustrated on 18 March when Penyrheol Comprehensive School in Swansea was severely damaged by a suspicious fire in the early hours of the morning.  Only the swift response and action of firefighters prevented the complex being totally destroyed.  The incident not only destroyed considerable public investment in a school at the heart of its local community, but also valuable course work that students and teachers have devoted considerable time and effort to produce.  It also placed at risk the lives of firefighters called to tackle the blaze.

Schools are not alone in their risk to fire, both deliberate and accidental.  All public, business and domestic buildings are at risk.  However, there are many preventative measures that can be taken to mitigate the problem.

Sprinklers are one example and the Assembly Government has taken a strong lead on promoting their use since the publication of the Community Fire Safety Working Group’s report into arson ‘Up in Flames’ (February 2003).  We have funded a pilot programme to examine the technical, operational and other practical barriers to sprinkler installations.  This includes providing almost £400,000 to sprinkler two ‘at risk’ schools, in addition to a further £88,500 to provide target hardening in identified vulnerable schools, and £45,000 to sprinkler nine domestic properties.  

The Assembly Government also provides local authorities with annual ring-fenced capital grant, the School Buildings Improvement Grant (SBIG) (£74.685m in the current year).  Authorities are free to use SBIG for fire prevention works, but it is a matter for local authorities to decide priorities according to local need and circumstances.  For example between 2002-03 to 2005-06 Newport LEA has allocated over £3,000,000 towards fire precaution works using this mechanism.  Local authorities also have their own general capital fund, which is un-hypothecated and can be used for any capital purpose.

The Assembly Government is contributing to work at a UK-level to consider the issues of sprinklers and I have asked the Community Fire Safety Committee, which advises the Assembly Government on fire safety matters to reconsider activity to date with a view to progressing it further in Wales.

Such measures are merely one aspect of our suite of preventative activity.  We have established, at a cost of £500,000, Arson Reduction Teams in each Fire and Rescue Authority area to drive down the problem.  Since 2004 £658,000 has been provided to fund community based anti-arson projects, including youth intervention, young firefighters, education workshops and grass and forest fire campaigns.

Prevention through education is key to our policies and it is important that we engage with young people to educate them of the dangers of playing with fire.  To this end we have provided £42,000 to fund key stage 1 fire safety education literature as part of the PSE element of the national curriculum and a further £361,000 to publicise the risks more widely across Wales.

Prevention alone is useless unless supported by effective intervention when the need arises.  That is why on 21 March I launched our Risk Reduction Planning (RRP) Guidance – Wales a Safer Country – for fire and rescue authorities.  RRP enables authorities to marry the need for prevention with an effective intervention not only in a seamless manner, but also in a way that is open and transparent, engages local stakeholders and based on robust and reliable evidence.  

The people of Wales expect that firefighters will arrive quickly to put out fires.  Linked to RRP are Service Standards to Fires in the Home.  This introduces for the first time a standard focusing on life risk and against which authorities must clearly demonstrate the level of service that the Welsh public can expect to receive.

Sadly we cannot stop fires from starting either deliberately or by accident.  Through education, prevention and intervention our aim is to make Wales a safer country.  Coupled with considerable Assembly Government investment we are beginning to make a real difference.