SCHOOLS — FIRE
SPRINKLERS
127. Hon KEN BASTON to the Minister for Education and
Training:
Can the minister please advise the
house of the total number of Western Australian government high schools and
primary schools located in the following regions and how many in each have fire
sprinkler systems installed —
(a) the Kimberley;
(b) the Pilbara;
(c) the North West Central; and,
(d) the East Metropolitan Region?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
We are assuming the honourable
member is referring to state electorate regions, not the regions used by the
Department of Education, so that is how we have answered the question.
(a) The number of
public schools in the Kimberley electorate is 23, including four primary
schools, one secondary school, one K–l2 school, 12 remote community
schools, four district high schools and one school of the air.
(b) The number of
public schools in the Pilbara electorate is 23, including 15 primary schools,
three secondary schools, two remote community schools, one district high school,
one education support centre and one school of the air.
(c) The number of
public schools in the North West Central electorate is 21, including 10 primary
schools, one secondary school, one K–12 school, five remote community
schools, three district high schools and one school of the air.
(d) The number of
public schools in the East Metropolitan Region is 163, including 119 primary schools, 24 secondary schools, one K–12
school, one senior college, one district high school, 15 education
support schools and centres and two language development centres.
Primary
schools are generally single-storey buildings and satisfy the conditions of the
National Construction Code. Primary schools are typically constructed of
fire-resistant or non-combustible materials. Primary schools are typically
designed to have coverage from a compliant fire hydrant system. Although fire
hydrant cover is a requirement only for buildings with over 500 square metres
of floor area and primary school teaching blocks are less than 500 square
metres, all buildings on primary school sites are protected by a fire hydrant
regardless of the building area.
Secondary
schools generally consist of single and two-storey buildings that meet the
conditions of the NCC. Secondary schools are typically constructed of
fire-resistant or non-combustible materials. Secondary schools are also
required to be designed to provide protection to all buildings from a compliant
fire hydrant system.
It should be noted that all primary
and secondary school designs are submitted to the Department of Fire and
Emergency Services for review against fire brigades' requirements and
approvals. When required, fire tanks, pumps and ring mains are installed at
school sites to ensure adequate water pressure to supply fire hydrant requirements.
Generally, primary and secondary school projects typically engaged a fire
engineer as part of the consultant team to ensure that the project met NCC and
referenced Australian standards requirements.