Fire at Queen Margaret’s Boarding School for Girls, Escrick
Date: 07/07/2013
Time: 18:11
Location: Queen Margaret’s boarding school for Girls, Escrick
Issued by North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service
Four fire appliances from York and Selby, together with the aerial ladder platform from York, and supporting officers, attended reports of smoke throughout a number of rooms in the Queen Margaret’s boarding school for girls.
On their arrival firecrews commenced an extensive search for the source of the fire which was not readily identifiable, but had resulted in smoke in approximately 20 rooms of the school, which occupies a size of nearly 300 x 300 metres, comprising three storeys in parts.
Firecrews commenced their methodical search for the fire, in the basement area and ground floor, necessitating the removal of floorboards and forced entry to a number of rooms.
After initial searching began around 18:30, the source of ignition was confirmed just before 21:00, when the fire was confirmed as being in ground floor room near to the reception area. The source of ignition being a portable BBQ which had been left unattended, presumably extinguished, on the flat roof above.
However, the portable BBQ had then, over time, burnt through the flat lead roof and dropped into the room below, where its resultant smoke had activated smoke alarms and percolated through approximately 20 rooms.
Fire/heat damage was confined to the hole in the roof, with slight smoke damage to the rooms. However, firecrews had to remove a number of floorboards, force entry to a number of locked rooms during their search, and then cut away burnt and heat damaged ceiling joists on their discovery of the fire.
Fire crews in total used six breathing appartus, three hosereels, a positive pressure ventilation fan and small tools.
The school was revisited by a fire appliance at around midnight, and will receive a further revisit later this morning.
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