Assessing the level of fire safety compliance of private educational buildings in Wakiso district.

Abstract

Rising incidents of fire in educational buildings are an increasing concern of every Ugandan. Properties worth millions of money have perished, and in some instances, students have lost their lives due to school fires. However, non-compliance could be thought to be among the factors that cause school fires but there was a need to first confirm whether schools are complying with the fire safety regulations. Therefore the purpose of this study is to assess the level of compliance to fire safety regulations/guidelines as set by the Ministry of Education and sports. Using questionnaires and analysis program tools such as excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), data was collected from private schools (secondary and primary) of Kyengera town council and then analyzed. Most schools were found to be aware of the fire safety regulations although most of them had not complied with the regulation. Also, in addition, high purchase and maintenance costs were discovered to be the major factors that have caused the noncompliance with the regulations. However, this research leaves room for further research to investigate the extent to which noncompliance with fire safety regulations has contributed to educational building fires.