Dear Parents, Guardians,
In 2017 Minister for Education Richard Bruton ordered reviews into the fire safety of a number of primary and second-level schools.
Lucan East ETNS was identified as a school to be included in the Fire Safety Assessments. This assessment has taken place over the summer and there are a number of issues noted with the school building which requires remedial works. The Department has assured the Board of Management/Principal that the building is safe. The Department’s priority is to ensure that each school building is made compliant with its Fire Certificate & Part B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations as soon as possible.
As the owners of the building, The Department is responsible for all remedial works and have engaged the services of KSN Project Managers with a full technical team including Architects, Engineers and Fire Safety Consultants, to organise and oversee any necessary remedial works. To minimise any potential disruption to the school, any remedial associated works may be required to be carried out during out of hours and/or over weekends after the school reopens from September.
All our teachers have been updated on this Fire Safety Report and our fire evacuation procedure. We ran two fire drills with the pupils last week and all pupils were evacuated from the building in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. We will run another drill in November and again in Terms 2 and 3. This is to ensure that the building can be evacuated within three minutes in accordance with Fire Safety best practice.
The Fire Safety Consultants have not identified our school as a potentially dangerous building. In this regard, it is also worth noting that the Department’s engagement with the Chief Fire Officers Association found that (a) school buildings are considered to be a relatively low risk on the basis that they do not involved a residential setting (b) have good fire alarm systems and evacuation procedures and (c) a recognition that the Department is taking a pro-active approach to dealing with the issues identified in the fire safety reports.
Regards,
The Board of Management