ARARAT West Primary School suffered more fire damage that it should have, according to Ararat Fire Brigade.
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In a Facebook post on Sunday, Ararat’s Country Fire Authority volunteers said they would review existing fire plans.
The brigade said low water pressure, caused by fire hoses installed at the school being destroyed by the fire itself, hampered its response.
A fire at Ararat West Primary destroyed four classrooms and damaged a fifth building early on Saturday morning.
“On arrival, we were too late to save the burning wing and our efforts to protect other buildings not affected by the fire, were hampered by a lack of water volume in the surrounding water mains,” the brigade posted on Facebook.
“The brigade creates pre-plans for major structures around Ararat that assist the Brigade with fire strategies in case of fire.
“We are aware that water mains surrounding the schools are only 100 millimeters and the water pressure is about 400 kilopascals – which we believe would be sufficient for an initial attack on a fire at this premises – so we were puzzled as to why there was a lack of water being supplied from the mains.”
The brigade attributed the low water pressure to damage to firefighting equipment at the school.
“Within the damaged wing, there were two fire hose reels that were installed so that if there happened to be a fire during school hours, then they could be used to quell the fire,” the brigade stated.
“However due to the fire taking place at night, the wall that these were attached to burnt and fell, causing the water pipe to burst and water flowed into the building at floor level.
“Because of this, we believe the water level from the mains dropped causing a lack of water volume for us on arrival. This was only revealed once the fire was bought under control.”
The brigade said it the Ararat West Primary School fire had been a “valuable lesson” and would now consider the risk of water pressure loss when it creates fire pre-plans.
“A big thank you for the fantastic effort by all firefighters involved, who stopped the fire from spreading to the front wing of the school which was only about 20 metres away,” the brigade posted.
“With the intensity of this fire, radiant heat melted plastic downpipes and rubbish bins that were up against the back wall of the front wing of the school and also affected laminated pictures that were hanging in the windows of the front wing classrooms.”
Firefighters and investigators attended Ararat West Primary until 8.30pm on Saturday.
Beaufort Fire Brigade, Stawell Fire Brigade, Langi Logan Fire Brigade, Great Western Fire Brigade, Moyston Fire Brigade, Warrak Fire Brigade, Avoca Fire Brigade and Ballarat City breathing apparatus van, Ararat Rural City water tankers also attended the scene.