GuidanceFire, August 2026
Hot works and roof fires on school buildings
Hot works cause school fires in August year after year, and they nearly always start after the work has finished for the day.
In August 2025 ten fire engines and around seventy firefighters were called to a school on Leigham Court Road in Streatham, just after midnight. Part of the roof was damaged. London Fire Brigade treated it as accidental and believed it was caused by hot works.
A year earlier, four crews attended a roof fire at a school in Clacton on 28 August, caused accidentally while work was being carried out on the roof, days before the autumn term.
Why the roof, and why afterwards
Torch on felt, grinding, welding and lead work all put heat into a roof build up that holds it. Smouldering in a void can take hours to become a fire, which is why so many of these start in the evening with the site empty and nobody to smell it.
The permit is the control
No hot work without a permit, issued for that task on that day. It should stop work at least an hour before the contractor leaves site, and require a fire watch of the area for at least an hour after the tools go down, including the space below and any void alongside. Extinguishers to hand, combustibles cleared, and a check of the area before the permit is signed off.
Ask whether it needs to be hot at all
Cold applied membranes and mechanically fixed systems avoid the risk completely. On a school roof over the holidays that is worth asking for at the quotation stage, and insurers increasingly ask about it too.
Hot works on your site
- A written permit for every hot work task, not a blanket one for the job.
- Hot work stopped at least an hour before the contractor leaves.
- A fire watch for at least an hour after, including the space below.
- Combustibles cleared and extinguishers at the work position.
- The area checked and the permit signed off before anyone goes.
- A cold applied alternative asked about before the work is ordered.
How we help
We provide a hot works permit for the school to issue, go through it with the site team, and make sure the fire risk assessment reflects the building during the works, not just after them.
General guidance only. It does not replace the fire risk assessment, water hygiene risk assessment or specific advice for a particular building.
