Fire chief: Fight arson by fitting sprinklers

Northland's top fire boss is calling on the Ministry of Education to rethink its policy on sprinklers in schools after an arson attack destroyed several classrooms at Kerikeri High School.
The blaze, which started under a wooden bench on Sunday morning, gutted the school's physics lab and badly damaged another lab, a preparation room, a maths room and an IT suite with 19 computers.
As firefighters removed chemicals from the charred remains of the lab on Sunday, Northland fire region commander Trevor Andrews said a sprinkler system would have greatly reduced the damage - and could have shortened the time the school had to stay closed.
Classes were due to resume today.

  The Ministry  should   insist on sprinkler systems  in every school, said Mr Andrews.
Currently the Ministry requires sprinklers only in new schools or schools adding new buildings or extensions bigger than 1000sq m.
"Schools are unfortunately targeted by arsonists, so they are high risk ... Sprinklers really are the best option to prevent and avoid building damage, but also avoid loss to resources and disruption to schools," Mr Andrews said.
However, the Ministry says retro-fitting the 94 per cent of schools which have no sprinkler systems would cost $500 million. By contrast, the cost of school fires was $3 million a year.
Schools were advised to invest in security and intruder alarms instead.
A security system raised the alarm when the Kerikeri fire started about 4.20am.
Meanwhile, Kerikeri High's 1440 pupils were back at school today after staff spent Tuesday and  yesterday re-timetabling classes.
The fire also affected the school's power, phone, computer network and heating systems.
Insurance assessors visited the school on Tuesday but principal Elizabeth Forgie said it was still unclear how much rebuilding would cost and which, if any, of the damaged classrooms could be salvaged.
The school's "beautiful covered walkway" - a student council project paid for by two years of student fundraising - had also been damaged, she said.
More than 50 firefighters and 13 appliances from as far away as Kaitaia and Whangarei battled the blaze and stopped it spreading through the block of seven classrooms.
Detective Sergeant Rhys Johnston said police were studying footage  from the school's surveillance system,  installed just two weeks earlier to combat graffiti problems.
Several small rubbish bin fires earlier the same night at the Cobham Rd skatepark were thought to be connected.
Mr Johnston said high winds would have made the fire spread quickly.
 He urged anyone with information to call Kerikeri police on (09) 407 9211 or the anonymous Crimestoppers line on 0800 555 111.