Totnes School Fire Treated as Arson: What the UK Numbers Show
A blaze that destroyed a building at King Edward VI Community College in Totnes is being treated as arson. We look at what Home Office figures, Zurich Municipal claims data and CheckFire research reveal about arson in UK educational establishments.
INFIRISK Team·5 min read·
A fire that destroyed a building at King Edward VI Community College in Totnes is being treated as arson by Devon and Cornwall Police. Crews from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service were called to the school on Ashburton Road shortly after 00:15 BST on Sunday 13 April 2026, where they found a single storey changing facility well alight. No-one was inside, and no injuries have been reported.
Inside the response at Ashburton Road
Three engines, from Totnes, Ashburton and Paignton, attended the scene. Firefighters used two hose reel jets, a main jet and a Compressed Air Foam System jet to bring the blaze under control, supported by small tools and a thermal imaging camera. Crews returned to station at around 04:00 BST. As reported by Totnes Today, the single storey building was completely destroyed. The college has indicated that staff are working to limit any disruption to teaching when pupils return after the weekend.
Devon and Cornwall Police have confirmed to Hits Radio Devon that the fire is being treated as arson, and have appealed for anyone with information to contact them on 101.
Arson is still a leading cause of major school fires
The Totnes incident sits within a much larger national pattern. The Home Office release Fire incidents in education premises, England 2010 to 2024, published in January 2025, shows that fire and rescue services in England attended hundreds of fires in schools and other education premises every year over the period covered. In 2022/23, there were around 522 fires in education premises in England, of which roughly 18 per cent were recorded as deliberate, broadly in line with the national average for non-residential buildings.
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More recent figures highlighted by the CheckFire Ltd report The State of Arson 2024, and reported by the Occupational Safety and Health Forum, show that 80 arson attacks were recorded against schools in England in the year ending March 2024, with one casualty. CheckFire director Bruce Robins describes the threat as long-running, noting that an arson attack can have lasting emotional and financial effects on a whole school community.
Insurer Zurich Municipal, which underwrites a substantial share of the UK schools market, has estimated that more than 1,000 fires occur on school premises every year. According to Insurance Times, the average cost of a large school fire claim is around £2.8 million, and the most serious incidents can reach £20 million. The same analysis estimates that up to 90,000 UK pupils a year have their education disrupted in some way by a school fire.
The long-term trend, and where progress has stalled
There is some good news in the long-term picture. The Home Office time series for fires attended by fire and rescue services in England shows that the total number of fires has fallen substantially since the early 2010s, and education premises have shared in that decline. Better electrical inspection regimes, indoor smoking bans, tighter risk assessments under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and improved building standards have all contributed.
The picture is less encouraging when the lens narrows to deliberate fires. Industry analysis from Zurich Municipal and CheckFire suggests that the rate of decline in school arson has flattened, and that the most damaging incidents continue to cluster around school holidays, weekends and the early hours of the morning, exactly the window in which the Totnes fire occurred. Outbuildings, sports pavilions, modular classrooms and waste storage compounds remain disproportionately exposed, since they are often unsupervised, lightly built and tucked behind perimeters that are easy to scale.
One of the most striking findings from Zurich Municipal''s nationwide review of school fire risk is how few new English schools are fitted with sprinklers. Of 673 schools built and opened since 2011 in the insurer''s sample, only around 15 per cent had a sprinkler system installed, and roughly two-thirds of English schools were rated as poor for fire protection overall. Current Department for Education guidance on fire safety in new and existing school buildings does not mandate sprinklers in most cases, leaving the decision to individual local authorities and academy trusts. Insurers, the Fire Brigades Union and the National Fire Chiefs Council have repeatedly called for that position to be revisited.
What the Totnes fire reminds school leaders to revisit
Whether or not the Totnes fire turns out to be a confirmed arson offence, the incident is a useful prompt for school leaders, governors and academy trust estate teams to look again at how their site stands up to a deliberate attack out of hours. Effective protection blends prevention, detection, suppression and recovery.
Keep the fire risk assessment up to date, and make sure it explicitly considers arson, in line with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Tighten access to outbuildings, sports pavilions, modular classrooms and waste storage areas, particularly in the evenings, at weekends and during school holidays when most arson attacks occur.
Maintain perimeter fencing, gates, security lighting and CCTV around vulnerable parts of the site, and check that they are actually working.
Review automatic detection and suppression systems, and consider sprinklers for high-value, hard-to-evacuate or business-critical buildings.
Run regular fire drills that cover both school hours and out-of-hours scenarios for caretakers and contractors.
Maintain a written business continuity plan so that learning can resume quickly if a building is lost, including arrangements for temporary classrooms and exam logistics.
Engage pupils in age-appropriate fire safety education, and ask the local fire and rescue service for a prevention visit if one has not been carried out recently.
Cases like Totnes show how quickly a single deliberate ignition can take an entire school facility off-line. The Home Office data is reassuring on direction, but the specific arson trend is moving slowly enough that most schools cannot afford to assume the problem has gone away.
