Fire Safety in Schools: Unsafe Equipment Poses a Threat to Students' Health

of Zahedan, the capital city of Sistan and Baluchistan province in Iran, caught fire at 9 a.m. on December 18^th, 2018. This incident led to the death of four girl students (1). Fifty-nine students were studying in the school that all of them were

rescued by the help of people and firefighters. However, four of the students were stuck in a class for a long time. Unfortunately, these students were burnt more than 90% and they died after being taken to hospital due to the severe burn and breathing problems. According to the conducted survey and the claim of the fire department, using oil stove in the class was the main reason of fire incident despite the fact that using such oil stove was prohibited in this country. Besides, the corridor between the classrooms was narrow that made it difficult to pass through it and the wooden desks caught fire and its flames spread to the windows.

The factors that increase the vulnerability of school classrooms to the fire include: window railings that make emergency evacuation difficult and sometimes impossible, use of oil stove and wooden desks. Awareness, education, and training have an important impact on the safety promotion and injury prevention, representing the best opportunity for long-term modification of fire safety culture over time (2).

The lessons learned from this fire incident have demonstrated safety principles in school that are crucial and schools should be prepared to response to the disasters effectively. Table 1 illustrates the list of fire cases in Iran’s school during the recent 20 years (3).

Table 1. A list of fire cases in school during the recent 20 years in Iran