School fire shatters community...........again

[Blueyez]

On Wednesday 18th Jan, @ 5:21am I received a phone call to attend a fire at the local school, when i got there 4 mins later, the whole school was ablaze & I knew then that we couldn't save it. The Investagators deemed it to be an electrical fault this time, thankfully it wasn't arson, as was the last one. The fire caused around $1 million worth of damage.
Our community have rallied since then to save our school site & thankfully it is saved, school will resume as normal on monday 30th. We have the library & craft block that are going to be used until our new building arrives.
I stayed for 12 hours that day to ensure it was out, with a few startups during the day, I have know idea how i held it together for that day, but when I got home that night, it hit me, hard.

[medevac]

Andamooka?

that was a shame.. brand new computer section and new wing of the school i believe?

[Blueyez]

Yes it was Andamooka & yes it was a computer medevac

[rescue5271]

Why is it the  schools are not fitted with sprinkler systems?? This would help slow a school fire and would not cause hardship to local communities,in a age where hospitals in country areas are being pushed into putting sprinklers in and that they have to find the money why is the fire service not pushing for schools and shopping centres to have them? really a country hospital,schools and shopping centres are the heart of a town so would it not be better if they where all protected.... Time the goverment spent some money on protecting these places and that the goverment paid for the cost of doing it....

[strikeathird]

Why is it the  schools are not fitted with sprinkler systems?? This would help slow a school fire and would not cause hardship to local communities,in a age where hospitals in country areas are being pushed into putting sprinklers in and that they have to find the money why is the fire service not pushing for schools and shopping centres to have them? really a country hospital,schools and shopping centres are the heart of a town so would it not be better if they where all protected.... Time the goverment spent some money on protecting these places and that the goverment paid for the cost of doing it....

Cause the little terrors would stand up with a match / lighter and activate the sprinklers every second day... Causing thousands of dollars in damages...

More effective to have a couple extinguishers with Teachers trained in Fire Warden duties..


But unfortunately, if it is going to happen, it is going to happen...

[Firefrog]

Schools could have a dry sprinkler system that relies on two or more different types of detectors to trigger. Eg a VESDA and Thermal or a Smoke and a Thermal Or Infra and Smoke. If you zone it, you only get one area wet and no fire when crews arrive.

[oz fire]

There are many solutions - maybe a good detection (hence early warning system) would be a good plan.

However I am aware of a school near us where the local donkey bums have dismantley security camera's then cut phone lines then btroken into the buildings and graffitied before stealing the areas contents (obviously knowing the security company and police response time's) - and that was young teenages.

Hopefully the education dept is working through the issues to find a suitbale solution for all.

[backburn]

We had a strange call to the local high school. Received call from private security company they have been trying to get hold of there guards to go and have a look as they had fire alarms going for the past 10 mins. He was busy in another location so they called us. Luckily it was only a couple of faulty alarms but could have been a problem.

[Alan (Big Al)]

We often get called to our local primary school for alarms that just go off, but last year during school some little terd tried to torch the toilets in the new two storey building. The fire was put out by some very brave but foolish teachers (they got smoke inhalation). The building filled up with more than enough smoke to warrant being ventilated but not one of the smoke alarms activated, that was extremely worrying.

[medevac]

last night there was another fire at the Andamooka area school... Third fire in two and a half months...

this time i believe it was approx. $500,000 damage.. to the arts and crafts area.

[Mike]

its hard to believe... 3 in such a short time.... i hope they can piece things enough to keep running as smoothly as possible. 

[medevac]

mmm, first one was an electrical fault apparently, but the last two (first of those being relatively minor) have been delibritely lit.

must be hard for the community to try to deal with..

[Alan (Big Al)]

I believe the second fire which was the minor one was accidental with an elecrical fault in an appliance. But i could be wrong.

If these are all accidental fires than i think the school needs to be rewired.

[fire03rescue]

The will need a new school now

[Alan (Big Al)]

True... Lets hope this fire wasn't deliberate.

[medevac]

mmm well fire cause attended so im sure everyone will one day know - worth noting that media releases have stated that "two youths were seens fleeing the scene"