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GMB union launches urgent investigation to discover if a laptop which sparked blaze at Park Primary School in Invergordon had been recalled two years ago due to safety concerns


By Louise Glen

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The blaze ripped through Park Primary in Invergordon.
The blaze ripped through Park Primary in Invergordon.

The GMB has said “questions needed to be answered” in the wake of the fire at Park Primary in Invergordon, after a whistle-blower claimed two recalled models were widely used by staff at the local authority.

Chris Murray, a former employee of Highland Council’s IT contractors Wipro, told the Highland News that laptops requiring a vital update to stop them bursting into flames were still in use throughout the Highlands until last week.

The IT specialist, who left his role last year, claims that both the Fujitsu Lifebook S752 and S751 remained in circulation at the authority, even after a North America, Europe and North Africa recall notice from the manufacturers in 2018 said they were known to catch fire because of a fault with the batteries. Fujitsu offered to replace the battery pack for free.

A teacher at Park Primary was working at a laptop with two pupils last Monday morning when it burst into flames and started a blaze which destroyed the school and many pupils’ personal belongings.

Last week, council employees were told to immediately stop using “black Fujitsu laptops” in an email sent by the council’s chief executive Donna Manson.

Mr MacPherson, of GMB Inverness, said: “If this allegation is true, then it is very serious.”

The union represents a number of members at Park Primary.

He continued: “I will be investigating the matter further. If it turns out that these laptops were still being used, it seems there are a number of questions that need to be answered and concerning issues that must be addressed.”

A council insider told the Highland News that in the last week, a drive to remove Fujitsu models had become “top priority” as dozens of them had been left behind after they were decommissioned.

MSP Edward Mountain said: “The safety of pupils and school staff must be the first priority of the education department and I am contacting Highland Council to ascertain the full reasons behind this IT failure.”

Mr Murray said a number of the faulty Fujitsu laptops, Lifebook S752s and S751s, were bulk purchased by the local authority.

He said that even when council laptops were refreshed, older ones were not necessarily removed from use and some Fujitsu laptops in circulation are more than eight years old.

After three years of working on the local authority’s IT service helpdesk and on the second tier helpdesk, Mr Murray said it was “entirely possible” that the model which ignited in Park Primary is one of the recalled models from Fujitsu.

Mr Murray said the council may not have even known about the fault, but it should have been made aware of the problem.

He said: “The fact of the matter is, the council had these models in circulation. I cannot say if this model was the one in the school or not, but there is certainly a need for this to be examined.”

Fujitsu had a contract with the local authority to provide IT services between April 2010 and August 2016, until it was tendered to Wipro.

A spokesman for Highland Council said: “We are aware of Fujitsu recall notices, which are issued on a regular basis. To the best of our knowledge none of the recall notices affected any of the laptops that were at Park Primary School.”

He made no mention, however, of whether such laptops might be in use elsewhere within Highland Council.

A spokesman for Fujitsu said it would assist with any inquiry, if asked to do so.


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