The fire at Braeview Academy displaced pupils for 14 weeks and brought back memories of the devastating Morgan Academy blaze to the city.
These images of the fire show the full extent of the flames.
Braeview Academy was formed in 1996 after the closure of Linlathen High School.
Linlathen first opened in 1958 as a junior secondary school.
Its attendance rates soon skyrocketed and it was turned into a high school for its 1,200 pupils in 1973.
Discussions around its closure first began in 1992.
A major fire in October 1992 had destroyed the school’s science laboratories, and Tayside Regional Council began debating the best course of action.
The initial plans were to reduce the school’s capacity to 700 pupils, and refurbish the building.
However, the plans never went ahead.
The school continued in the years that followed before the new council drew up a report and Linlathen was earmarked for demolition.
The Linlathen pupils were to be merged with those of the nearby Whitfield High School.
The two would be moved into Whitfield with a new name.
The newly-named Braeview Academy opened its doors in 1996 and the school went on to be the backdrop for many Dundonian’s childhoods.
September 11 2018.
Every fire and police crew in the north of the city helped tackle the blaze at the secondary school on the night of September 11.
The roof was consumed by flames which rose to about 30-40 feet in the air.
Onlookers said the fire had spread from one end of the building to the other in just 20 minutes.
Initially there were fears that the high winds that night would cause the fire to spread to nearby woodland.
Firefighters were called to the scene just after 9pm.
A total of nine fire and rescue appliances and four height vehicles arrived and attempted to flood the building.
All surroundings roads were closed.
Firefighters had the incident under control by about midnight, but was it too late to save the school?
The investigation begins
The question on everyone’s lips was, what had caused such a devastating blaze?
With the school now closed to pupils, kids and carers alike were determined to find the answer.
An emergency staff meeting took place the following morning at 11am.
Teachers met at the nearby Ballumbie Primary School to discuss next steps.
Meanwhile, the pupils and their parents awaited news.
It was a tricky negotiation with several conflicts of interest.
The kids had to be kept safe, but they also had to be kept in school and not every carer was capable of driving them to yet another premises that was even further away.
At the time, the local council refused to make a final decision until a full assessment of the damage had been carried out.
Until they saw the extent of the wreckage, they couldn’t yet decide if it was possible for the building to be salvaged.
Elsewhere, Dundee City Council’s director of children and families services, Stewart Hunter, was attempting to lift people’s spirits.
He said: “We have been in this situation once before when Morgan Academy was badly damaged and we dealt with that.
“We will deal with this too.”
Morgan Academy
The fire brought back memories of the Morgan fire.
On March 21 2001 the school was gutted despite the best efforts of about 70 firefighters.
The refurbished secondary was closed for three years after the fire, but did eventually reopen at the start of the 2004-05 term.
Pupils from the school were housed at the former Rockwell High building while the academy was fully rebuilt.
Their stay at a new premises was a stop gap, a resting place rather than a final destination.
The hopes were that the pupils of Braeview would be just as lucky.
A couple of weeks after the Braeview blaze, a phased return was announced for the school’s pupils.
However, Braeview would remain closed, and they would start returning to their classes across two different city schools.
Craigie High and the new Baldragon Academy were to be their new stomping grounds until at least the October holidays, the council said.
With the school now empty, Dundee City Council were able to get inside and fully assess the extent of the damage.
Shortly after, the Evening Telegraph spoke to investigators.
While the exact cause of the fire was still to be determined, investigators believed a small bonfire that went wrong may have started the blaze.
Although not thought to have been a deliberate attempt at fire-raising, strong winds could’ve fanned the flames towards the school and started the blaze.
In November 2018, a full report on the fire was released.
A total of eight safety failures, which had all been highlighted months and years earlier, were still unresolved by the time the flames engulfed the school.
Required actions, including replacing the entire CCTV system and fitting locks to the cupboards of individual gas shut-off valves, were never completed.
A further three of the eight incomplete requirements had been repeatedly highlighted to education bosses over a five-year period.
These included the need to replace and upgrade the full fire alarm system, and the school’s “sub-standard” fire exits.
At the time, the council insisted that “all the urgent points” raised in the fire risk assessment had been implemented.
Parents and children, they said, had no reason to be concerned by the report.
Homecoming
Just over three months after the fire, Braeview Academy was opened once again.
Its pupils could now return “home”, the council said.
Parts of the old building had been repaired, and several temporary classrooms had been set up on the grounds while the final works were completed.
Final reflections
Fire chiefs investigating the blaze pointed to a “lack of training and guidance” given to the head teacher as part of her responsibility to keep the building safe – despite the blaze happening outwith school hours.
A fire safety audit raised further concerns over staff training, fire drills, and preventing further wilful fire-raising.
In the end, a 15-year-old boy was charged over the fire and referred to the Youth Justice Assessor.
New school
As for the future of Braeview Academy, it once again faces closure as the council plan to merge it with the nearby Craigie High School and move both sets of pupils into a new premises.
It will be replaced with a single new secondary school and community learning campus on Drumgeith Road.
Plans are to open the new school in August 2024.
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