RELUCTANCE by the Government to pay for the installation of sprinklers in schools is causing millions of pounds of damage and threatening lives, according to the Fire Service.

As new figures obtained by The Times show that three schools suffer an arson attack every day at an estimated cost last year of £70 million, chief fire officers say that government policy deters schools from fitting life-saving sprinkler systems.

Peter Holland, the Chief Fire Officer of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and the chairman of the National Fire Sprinkler Network, said: “We have been trying desperately hard to get sprinklers in new-build schools. Every chief fire officer in the country is battling each time when new schools are built to get sprinklers installed but with limited success.

“The problem is that grants for school buildings are reduced if a sprinkler system has been included in the plans. The cost of putting in sprinklers is deducted from the grant.

“The Government is spending an absolute fortune on building schools but feels that sprinkler costs are an add-on it doesn’t want. This is really stupid and must change.”

Installation costs for sprinkler systems vary depending on the size of the school. As a rule of thumb, they account for about 5 per cent of the budget although this can fall to 1 per cent with proper planning. A sum of £200,000 is not uncommon for a new school’s sprinkler system. Putting a system in existing buildings is more costly.

Of the 30,000 schools across the UK, fewer than 200 have sprinkler systems. Not one of the schools suffering a large fire in 2004 was fitted with a sprinkler system.

Alan Doig, the Chief Fire Officer for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, said: “The Department for Education and Skills is positively impeding the local education authorities from embracing sprinkler systems in schools.”

Fire officers and insurance companies say that sprinklers are extremely effective in putting out potentially devastating fires.

Larry Stokes, an underwriting manager at Zurich Municipal, a specialist public services insurer, and the chairman of the Arson Prevention Bureau’s schools working group, said: “The Department for Education and Skills is reasonably reluctant to fund sprinkler systems even though school arson is a complex, serious crime with widespread effects.”

According to Zurich, the cost of arson in schools, including related expenses such as relocating pupils, has risen by nearly 140 per cent over the past decade.

The culprits are usually pupils or former pupils and they are rarely caught or prosecuted.

Zurich estimates that about 100,000 pupils are affected by large school fires each year as the result of the destruction or damage of classrooms and school property.

Fire officers are worried that an increasing amount of fires are started during school hours, rather than at night when buildings are deserted.

Although the cost of school arson varies slightly from year to year, depending on the number of very large fires in school buildings, total arson costs to the nation have been climbing steadily. Government figures show that in 2003 arson cost nearly £3 billion, up by nearly a third since 2000.

Insurance claims for arson have also risen across Britain over the past decade, up by nearly £100 million to £400 million since 1994, according to the Association of British Insurers.

The average cost of a fire that has been started deliberately — including firefighters’ time, loss to business or individual and insurance claims — is £6,320.

Although fire and rescue services are working hard to reduce arson, including setting up arson task forces to try to educate the local community and reduce the opportunities for arson, two people still die from deliberate fires each week.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said that its primary concern was the safety of all adults and children in schools.

“The decision to put sprinklers in schools is one for the local education authority,” he said. “They carry out risk assessments.”

The spokesman added that officials were analysing responses to a recent consultation on safety in schools, including looking at whether sprinklers should be installed.

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