As Russley School in Christchurch prepares to re-open on Wednesday following a fire on its premises a week ago, Fire and Emergency New Zealand is warning how dangerous electrical equipment can be.
Last Monday, a faulty multi box caught fire, completely destroying four classrooms and making the school’s administration block inhabitable.
1 NEWS has learned in the past five years more than 130 schools have had electrical fires started by multi boxes, fuses, switches, lights and chords.
Russley School Principal, Greg Lewis fears the risk will increase as schools use more technology.
"The modern challenges of technology provision and things in school now really pose a dilemma and conundrum that needs to be looked at, at a system level," he said.
A Ministry of Education spokesperson told 1 NEWS following last week’s blaze it would be communicating with all schools around steps they can take to ensure their electrical systems are operating safely and correctly.
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