Fire Protection Association (FPA, UK) News

Students at the University of Lincoln have been told to vacate their privately owned accommodation amidst fire safety fears. Around 500 students at the University of Lincoln have been told they need to leave their university accommodation following the results of a recent fire risk assessment. Several issues at the privately owned residential building, The Gateway, were uncovered by independent fire consultants. In particular, they found there was a need to make “improvements to fire...

The owners of a care home have been fined £60,000 for breaching fire safety regulations after a 90-year-old resident accidentally set fire to himself while smoking. Ashberry Healthcare Ltd, the former owner of Heathercroft Care Home in Woolston, was charged with failing to comply with the Fire Safety (Regulatory Reform) Order 2005 at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on 11 October 2022. Outside smoking shelter It follows a tragic incident that occurred in May 2018, when resident Henry...

Prominent house builder, Bellway, has reportedly set aside another £346.2 million as part of its new Building Safety Division, which oversees the fire safety remediation work of its legacy schemes. This brings its overall cladding bill to a total of £513.7 million. The housing firm has highlighted its commitment to resident safety on its website, saying: “Following the Grenfell tragedy in June 2017, we proactively instigated a full review of our high-rise portfolio and id...

A hotel owner has been fined £50,000 for continuing to allow guests to check in to his East London hotel despite being issued with a prohibition notice for serious fire safety failings. deficiency in fire safety When inspectors from the London Fire Brigade (LFB) first visited The Bank Hotel in Barking in May 2018, they saw numerous examples of deficiencies in fire safety regulations that were enough to warrant a prohibition notice. Some of these included a lack of fire doors, no smoke de...

Firefighters from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) worked overnight to bring the fire at the nursery building under control using six fire appliances and an aerial ladder platform. Describing the incident as a “large fire involving a commercial building,” the service also took to Twitter to advise residents to keep doors and windows closed as the fire was creating a “smoke plume.” After checking that any hotspots and remaining embers had been extinguished,...

Footage of major fires erupting in Istanbul, Turkey, and Islamabad, Pakistan, has reinforced the dangers of combustible materials being used in many high-rise buildings.  On 15 October 2022, a massive fire engulfed a residential building in Fikirtepe, in the Kadiköy district of Istanbul. Building evacuation  While fire crews tackled the rising blaze, residents were required to evacuate the building via the stairs as the elevators were not working. Local Turkish news, Oda TV, r...

The fire was believed to have begun in the evening and quickly spread across the top floors of the Leonardo building, which has been under renovation for the last 12 months. Located near the city’s Millenium Square, crews from the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) were joined by the police, an ambulance service, and a specialist team – Yorkshire’s Hazardous Area Response Team (HART). WYFRS later confirmed that a safety cordon was put in place, with surrounding bui...

Of the numerous failings noted by inspectors, it was discovered that “necessary actions” had not been completed following a fire risk assessment that was conducted in March 2022. This included personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPS) either not being in place or not being kept up to date.  The CQC report also outlined that staffing levels at Lyndhurst Residential Care Home were not safe, which meant some residents did not “always receive timely support from staff.&rdqu...

As reported by the Southern Daily Echo on 10 October 2022, residents initially moved into their new-built homes in April 2019. However, in late 2021, issues relating to fire safety were discovered, with residents being told that remedial works would be needed to meet the latest standards and regulations. In October 2021, residents of the block were sent letters warning of issues with. In December of the same year, the fire policy was also changed to introduce a full evacuation in the...

The guidance from consumer charity Electrical Safety First comes after several energy suppliers have outlined their plans to run money-back schemes for their customers during the winter period. The opt-in schemes, which are geared for launch between November 2022 and March 2023, are being run by the National Grid, OVO, and Octopus Energy. They aim to reduce the amount of energy being consumed during peak hours by requesting customers to run certain appliances, such as washing machines and tumbl...

Covering the financial year between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, the annual report covers numerous data – as listed by the Incident Recording System (IRS) – on fire incidents, including fire-related fatalities, non-fatal casualties, rescues, and evacuations; the extent of damage and spread of fire; the causes of dwelling fires and fire-related fatalities; temporal and seasonal fire analyses; and smoke alarm functions.   In summary, in the year ending March 2022, a total of 5...

As reported by the BBC, a total of 4,400 domestic flats will be checked for fire safety issues and risks. The announcement comes after the tragic fire at Twinnell House, Easton, where a 30-year-old man died, and eight others were hospitalized. Author's quote On 4 October 2022, Tom Renhard – the councilor for housing – addressed cabinet members by saying that the money would come from a £3.8 million underspend in the 2021/2022 housing revenue account: “Fire safety i...

The government has launched a professional indemnity insurance (PII) scheme to help EWS1 assessors carry out their assessments of high-rise buildings. PII scheme Launched on 26 September 2022, the government has created a new scheme that will enable qualified professionals to get the cover they need to conduct a fire risk appraisal on external wall systems (known as an EWS1 form) of mid- and high-rise buildings. Developed by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC), th...

A UK council is facing a bill of almost £20 million after fire safety failings were discovered at a block of flats it owns. fire safety issues Mansfield District Council bought the apartment block in Clapham, London, for investment purposes in 2017, however, following an independent assessment of the building in 2018, a number of fire safety issues were found. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) also allegedly discovered several “undisclosed” failings with the building and issue...

Construction firm, O'Hare & McGovern (OHMG), has been unable to overturn a high court action for cladding and fire protection-related works at Obel Tower, the tallest residential building in Northern Ireland. A court order to fix “life-threatening defects” at Belfast’s Obel Tower remains in place as of 16 September 2022, after OHMG was unable to overturn the ruling. This is despite the firm’s lawyers arguing that the contractual obligation had been “invalidly t...

The Department for Education (DfE) has been criticized for failing to outline "crucial" advice about fire safety in new school buildings across England. On 24 September 2022, a Schools Week exclusive highlighted growing concerns over the continued delay of the DfE in publishing its final report on fire safety advice for new schools in England. This is despite having already received feedback from its most recent consultation in 2021. Fire Safety Design for Schools  The consultation,...

The latest webinar from the FPA, which ran on 20 September 2022, welcomed the FPA's Senior Associate Trainer, Mike Floyd to share his expertise and guidance on fire door safety. At this event, he shared a few key extracts from the fire door module of the Understanding Fire Doors training course offered by the FPA. The webinar began with a brief introduction to the key areas of fire door setup, before moving on to points of concern and common alterations that can result in fire door performance...

The fire, which started on the 16th floor of Twinnell House, Easton, in the early hours of 25 September 2022, led to the evacuation of the entire building – 90 people in total. Eleven fire appliances were deployed to the block of flats along with two turntable ladders and other specialist vehicles, and firefighters were sent into the building to search and clear the flats. Author's quote Dave Hodges, Duty Group Commander for the Avon Fire and Rescue Service (AF&RS), said: “On...

The LPC Sprinkler Rules for Automatic Sprinkler Installations is the UK's most significant sprinkler installation standard which incorporates the full BS EN 12845:2015+A1:2019 standard and related Technical Bulletins. Published by the FPA, this document has recently been updated to incorporate new Technical Bulletins and update existing ones to provide a specification designed to ensure the highest reasonably practical levels of property protection, life safety, and resilience to fire can be ac...

Southwark Council has been criticized for failing to carry out adequate fire risk assessments in a block of flats despite being located next to another tower block where six people died in a blaze in 2009. The independent report, published in September 2022, found that unqualified contractors had been hired at Marie Curie House in Camberwell and that the council had allowed “inadequate” assessments to be carried out. independent Report findings  “There appears to be lim...

A high-rise office building in Changsha, central China, saw a major fire break out on 16 September 2022, though no casualties have been reported and the cause of the fire is still unknown. CCTV, the state broadcaster, reported that “Thick smoke billowed from the site and dozens of floors burned ferociously.” A photograph released by CCTV on social media revealed the 218-meter building enveloped in flames with thick black smoke issuing from all sides. State-Owned telecommunications...

Ron Alalouff reviews the tighter regulation of fire safety in the design and construction of buildings coming into effect on 1 December. In the last twelve months, the government has moved to strengthen a range of fire safety provisions in building regulations and guidance, including drawing up tougher standards on the use of combustible materials on medium-rise blocks of flats between 11m and 18m high. Changes in Act The changes are being brought about by the Building Etc (Amendment) (Englan...

The UK’s biggest housebuilder, Barratt, reported costs of £412m to deal with “legacy property costs associated with building safety-related remediation activities” that reduced its pre-tax profit by 20.9%. The amount set aside by the company has doubled from that originally announced when Barratt signed up to the pledge in April.  The company also set the timeline to complete the outstanding remediation and repair work at three-to-five years but admitted it did not...

The Building Safety Regulator has reported that the new, more stringent regime for higher-risk buildings is already affecting planning applications. Planning Gateway One (PGO) Planning Gateway One (PGO) was the first step in changing the regulatory framework for building safety in England, following the Grenfell Tower tragedy. In making the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) a statutory consultee for planning applications for high-rise residential buildings, it aims to ensure that planning app...

Reena James, 42, died in the incident at Redwood Grove on the morning of 4 July, which resulted in two other injuries, a firefighter being hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and the destruction of more than 20 flats and much of the building’s roof. Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service described the blaze as a “major incident” at the time, with six appliances, two water carriers, and an incident command unit deployed. Police believe that Ms. James forced her way into a n...

Greenwich Council in London is in breach of housing standards, including failing to remedy hundreds of high-risk fire safety defects and having more than 400 fire risk assessments of its housing stock outstanding. The council was also found by the Regulator of Social Housing to have more than 1,000 communal properties and over 10,000 domestic properties without a current electrical condition report, as well as failures of asbestos and water safety. Home Standard Breach The regulator concluded...

A new fire detection and alarm systems competition to enable apprentice engineers to boost their skills has been launched by the charity, WorldSkills UK. Program training  Run in partnership with Skills for Security, apprentice engineers will have the opportunity to undergo training ahead of the national final in November, with a chance to compete at the international ‘Skills Olympics’ in France in 2024. The program builds on WorldSkills UK’s electronic security systems...

The ongoing Fatal Accident Inquiry into the fire at Cameron House in December 2017, where two men died, has heard there was a “management failing” at the hotel. Simon Midgley, 32, and his partner, Richard Dyson, 38, from London, died as a result of the fire, and hotel company Cameron House Resort (Loch Lomond) Ltd was previously fined £500,000, after admitting to two charges of breaching the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005. Night porter Christopher O’Malley was also given a com...

The London Fire Brigade has issued another e-bike safety warning after five people were rescued from a flat fire in St John’s Wood. Four fire engines and around 25 firefighters attended the scene at around 2am, which was under control by 02:56. Around half of the flat on the second floor of a block on Frampton Street was damaged by the fire. One resident was taken to hospital as a result. Correct safety standards The fire is believed to have been accidental and caused by a lithium-ion b...

A development for three new blocks of flats near Totterdown, Bristol, United Kingdom (UK) has been approved despite serious fire safety concerns. Housing developers - Donard have been granted permission to construct 221 flats over three blocks between York Street and Mead Street, two of which will be 11 storeys tall. The third tower, however, has only one escape route, and is at the centre of calls for a design overhaul. Council planning officers The apartments form a part of the wider Mead S...