Croydon domestic fire
On Monday 14th September a fire occurred in the kitchen of a flat in a Croydon flat when a tea towel, placed too near to a toaster, caught fire. The occupier , an elderly gentleman, was asleep in his living room at the time. The sprinkler head actuated in the kitchen area, extinguished the fire and alerted staff via the alarm system activated by the sprinkler flow switch. Staff who attended managed to safely evacuate the occupant from the smoke filled flat.
London Fire Brigade crews attended and isolated the sprinkler system but there were no fire-fighting measures required. A sprinkler engineer attended later that day to replace the head. The home manager, Mrs Christina Sande, remarked that it appears that the sprinklers may have potentially saved this gentleman's life.
Truscott House is an "Extra Care" Sheltered Scheme which is owned by the London Borough of Croydon and was the first of six such schemes in Croydon to have been retro-fitted with sprinklers. This was following London Fire Brigade safety visits prompted concerns regarding the number of vulnerable residents in some of the schemes in the Borough.
This 'save' demonstrates how effective partnership working between FRS and Housing Providers can be in protecting vulnerable occupants, and the clear advantages of fitting suppression systems in such cases.
