Fire safety lapses found in five ‘rapid build’ primary schools

Fire safety audits carried out in five recently-constructed primary schools identified cases of non-compliance with fire safety standards.

Less fire resistant plasterboard was used in the construction of the schools, and the audits advised immediate remedial work needed to be carried out.

The schools are Powerstown Educate Together; Gaelscoil Clocha Liatha, Greystones Co Wicklow; Mullingar Educate Together in Co Westmeath; Belmayne Educate Together; and St Francis of Assissi, National School, in Belmayne, North Dublin.

The buildings were all constructed by Western Building Systems Ltd, under the Department of Education’s “rapid build” school programme in 2008.

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However, in a statement issued on Saturday, the board of management of Powerstown Educate Together said the audit related to a building that had been demolished in September 2016.

The school said it had moved all classes into a new permanent building in August 2016. “This building was constructed by ABM. We would like to assure our school community that our building is fully compliant with fire safety regulations. All fire safety certificates are available for viewing in the school.”

Safety audits were carried out in the schools after fire safety compliance issues were identified in Rush/Lusk Educate Together school, which was also built by Western Building Systems Ltd in 2008.

The department’s safety audits were carried out in 2016 and were published Friday.

In all the schools the audits found single layers of 12.5mm plasterboard were used in parts of the buildings construction, which would not achieve sufficient fire resistance to provide the required time for an evacuation.

The audits detailed that immediate and essential improvement works should be carried out in the buildings to bring them up to fire safety compliance standards.

Buildings used by Belmayne Educate Together and St Francis of Assissi, National School in Belmayne are due to be replaced next year. Mullingar Educate Together and Gaelscoil Clocha Liatha in Greystones are permanent school buildings.

Remedial works to address fire safety compliance issues are currently underway in the four schools. The Department of Education estimate all works will be completed by the end of October 2017.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said “it is important to note – this is not a finding that the buildings are dangerous, it is a finding that the buildings do not comply with the detailed requirements of the Fire Safety Certificates”.

The department said it would carry out a wider review of fire safety in school buildings. To this end, it published a State contract looking for a firm to undertake a fire safety audit of a sample of school buildings.

The audit will inspect a sample of 25 schools built over the last 20 years in Ireland, to identify if there are any widespread fire safety issues.