Blaze rips through fire college

A fire college was found to have failed to comply with fire safety laws, following a blaze on part of its own premises.

Eleven fire engines were destroyed along with the garage housing them when the UK Fire Service College caught alight, causing more than £1m of damage.

According to reports, no current fire risk assessment was in place when the incident happened, despite it being a legal requirement to perform a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment on almost every type of building in England and Wales since 2006, the BBC said.

The college is understood to have been in the process of completing an up-to-date fire risk assessment when the fire occurred. Another risk assessment had been carried out five years previously under old legislation.

The college admitted that it had identified a number of shortcomings, following a fire safety audit carried out by an inspector after the blaze, including an up-to-date fire risk assessment.

The Fire Service College is the latest organisation revealed to have failed in its compliance with fire safety law.

In January, the BBC found several local councils had failed to carry-out fire risk assessments on many of the residential tower blocks that they owned.