MASAKA, March 25, 2024 – The National Building Review Board [NBRB] has developed an online fire safety self-assessment kit to facilitate the assessment of fire safety, safety readiness, and fire risk management of buildings in schools in the country.
According to NBRB’s spokesman, Patrick Zziwa, the tool that can be installed on smartphones will enable school administrators, matrons, teachers, and security guards to evaluate the fire safety preparedness of their schools to reduce fire accidents, especially in dormitories.
Using the tool, school management can be able to carry out an appraisal of buildings within their schools and get instant feedback to enhance the safety of the users of the buildings.
The tool has been piloted in some schools in the country after approval from the Board of NBRB, and the Ministry of Education and Sports.
“The tool has several advantages when different data about a school is entered and the fire protection rating is known; different school administrators can then proceed to implement measures to ensure the safety of children in their care,” said zziwa.
He added that the data from the tool can also be used by the Government to manage resources when implementing measures to curb fire accidents in schools and other institutions.
Since 2020, the National Building Review Board [NBRB] has investigated several fire incidents, with 52 percent occurring in commercial buildings, 35 percent in Schools, and 13 percent in residential buildings. These fires were mainly caused by human action [arson-fires deliberately set] and negligence for instance, charcoal stoves kept under the bed, smoking materials, and rubbish burning places in the vicinity of buildings.
Other causes included electric faults resulting from insufficient cable sizing and protection, poorly maintained installations, vermin damaging the cables, acts of God, such as Lightning, and maintenance works, for example, welding
Zziwa said schools like Masaka Secondary School and Kasaana Junior School in Masaka City recently experienced fire accidents leading to the death of some students, injuries, and destruction of properties worth millions of shillings.
He said investigations by the NBRB revealed that the fires in these schools could have been prevented and minimised if different fire safety measures had been implemented in the schools.
‘’It is a requirement by all schools to have fire safety measures such as installing fire extinguishers on buildings, removing burglar proofs in the dormitories and classrooms, and provision of emergency exits in case of a fire outbreak,” he said.
On his part, Masaka City Education Officer, Stephen Kakeeto said they have 225 primary schools and 55 secondary schools whose administrators will be enrolled to start using the online tool to curb fire outbreaks in the schools.
He has thanked NBRB for introducing the tool, adding that Uganda Police together with Masaka City Education Department have trained about 165 security guards and 80 matrons in both primary and secondary schools in firefighting skills because they are the first responders in case of any fire outbreaks.
The kit can be accessed via https://firesafety.nbrb.ug
On his part, the head teacher of Masaka Secondary School, Musa Mpungu said they have put strict measures in place to ensure safety of students in the school, including training security guards to handle fire outbreaks.
Meanwhile, NBRB in an inspection that covered 120 schools between May 2022 and May 2023 to assess the status quo and make recommendations on the way forward on fire safety revealed that whereas all the schools that were visited were accessible by a fire tender, some of the buildings within some schools could only be accessed with difficulty while only three schools had carried out a fire safety assessment by the time of the study.
NBRB established that none of the schools visited had a fire hydrant on site for fire emergencies. Only About 10 percent of the schools visited had a hydrant in the vicinity while 30 percent had installed fire detection and alarm systems although they did not have adequate coverage.
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