Harbour School is a community special school for boys aged between 5 to 14 with 60 pupils and 11 of which are residential.  The school provides for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The residential accommodation was located in a Grade II listed building and a recent fire risk assessment had identified the poor escape routes from the building which the children would have to use at night, this includes the external escape staircase.  Due to the type and age of the building, additional conventional passive fire protection was considered to be unsuitable and with this in mind, Cambridgeshire County Council looked for alternative ways to provide a safe environment.

After consultation with the Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service and the County Councils fire insurers, it was decided to install a Residential Fire Sprinkler Installation to the accommodation building.  The system was designed and installed in accordance with BS DD 251 (predecessor of BS 9251 : 2005 Sprinkler Systems for Residential and Domestic Occupancies).  It was also decided that the water supply should be capable of feeding both the residential accommodation and a possible extension into the main school buildings at a later date.  In addition, due to the high risk to ‘life’ in the accommodation building, the water supply should be designed to the additional ‘life safety’ requirements of Approved Document B and BS 5306 Part 2.

If a fire sprinkler system were to be installed into the school buildings then this system would be installed to BS 5306 Part 2 and would be classified as Ordinary Hazard Group I.  With this in mind, the water supplies were designed to the Ordinary Hazard Group 1 Classification with the additional ‘life safety’ requirements.

Armstrong Priestley’s contract was based on a ‘turn key’ package which not only included the design and installation of the fire sprinkler installation but also the civil works such as the design and building of the pump house, tank base foundations, trench works, making good and redecorating where necessary.  Most of the work was carried out over the summer holiday with additional visits at weekends when the school was closed.

The water supplies consisted of two rectangular water storage tanks each with a capacity of 14m³, feeding one electric and diesel pump set.  With a significantly larger water supply than required for a Residential Sprinkler Installation, our design team was able to considerably reduce the pipe sizes by using computerized hydraulic calculations.  The pipework within the building was installed in Yorkshire Copper pipe with press-fit fittings; this system carries a manufacturer’s warranty of 20 years.  Sprinkler heads were all of the ‘fast response’ type and designed for residential premises.