Technical Measures to Prevent and Mitigate the Consequences of Arson in School Buildings

Fires in school buildings caused by arson are a major problem in Sweden and in particular are the costs of these fires disproportionately high compared to the costs of fires in buildings in general. The Swedish Research Board initiated a multidisciplinary project in order to reduce the number and consequences of arson fires in schools. Both technical and social aspects have been dealt within this project. In this paper an overview of the findings of the sub-project related to technical issues are presented. The goal and purpose of it has been to evaluate technical systems and engineering solutions to prevent and reduce the consequences of arson in school buildings. As part of this has a number of issues been considered including: identification of typical fire scenarios and design fires, an inventory of available technical systems and solutions, small- and real-scale experiments and an extensive cost-benefit analysis of a selection of technical systems.