News and Press

Scottish F&RS report that at 11:32 on Tuesday 13th December, a call was received to a fire at the three storey  St Peter the Apostle High School in Clydebank.

 The fire occurred after a student set fire to toilet paper in a cubicle, which ignited the plastic holder and activated one concealed head on the pump and tank fed sprinkler system. This extinguished the fire before arrival of SFRS and contained any fire damage to within the toilet cubicle.

 Though the fire loading was not high, the damage from the acrid smoke produced by the plastic toilet roll holder may have spread further into the building.

 It was noted that the lack of knowledge from the staff on the location of the sprinkler isolation valve led to a delay in isolating the water supply to the sprinkler system causing 2 hours disruption to the school day.

Shortly after 4 a.m. on Saturday 1st October a fire occurred in a waste bin in the bedroom of a flat on High Street, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. The cause of the fire is under investigation but was possibly started by carelessly discarded smoking materials.

The building is a 9 storey block with retail units occupying floors 1-5 and the remaining 4 uppermost floors being residential.

The sprinklers in the bedroom activated due to the fire and contained/controlled the fire allowing the 19 year old occupant to make good his escape. He was administered oxygen at the scene but did not require hospital treatment. There was 10% fire damage reported to the 2m x 2m bedroom along with moderate smoke discolouration in the flat.

At around 22:40 hours on Sunday 27th March 2016 a kitchen fire occurred at a 14 storey tower block in Chelmsford, Essex. The fire involved cooking oil within a chip pan which had ignited.

The 81 flat  block is one of a number within Essex that have been fitted with residential sprinklers and, once the pan ignited, one sidewall sprinkler head activated within the kitchen and completely extinguished the fire. The sprinkler system is fed by pump from a storage tank within the building.

Fire damage is reported to have been confined to the room itself (5m²) and no injuries are reported to have occurred.

A recently installed fire sprinkler system, at a Derby street address in Gleadless, Sheffield, activated following a mobility scooter fire, allowing the elderly resident to escape without serious injury.



The mobility scooter, parked outside the front of the top floor property, burst into flames shortly before 6:00am due to an electrical fault.  The resulting fire then spread to the front of the building causing the front windows to break and allow the fire to spread inside the building.



The fire sprinkler system activated, extinguishing the fire and limiting damage to the front of the dwelling, when fire crews arrived the fire was all ready under control.



The interior of the property was relatively undamaged by this very severe fire.



The fire sprinklers have been retrofitted in the 540 ranch style properties as part of a ground breaking initiative by Sheffield Council to improve fire safety in the properties, supported by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.



The installation of these type of systems is now mandatory in Wales and SYFR are actively promoting the use of this type of protection in all types of buildings to build resilience and safety into our community  

On 15th September a fire occurred at a flat in a block of 26 incorporated into a former 'work house'.



The vulnerable resident had been smoking in bed and then gone through to the kitchen where he had an epileptic fit. The bed subsequently caught fire due to smoking materials. Nearby residents were alerted to the fire by the alarms. (both Smoke and Sprinklers)

A single sprinkler head operated and fully extinguished the fire before the Fire Brigade arrived. Fire Brigade personnel had to break into the flat to gain access, finding the occupant unconscious in the kitchen following his seizure.

Although somewhat 'shell shocked', the occupier said he was very pleased with the system as, without it, the situation could have been much more serious due to his inability to escape the fire. He was also able to return to his flat following the incident with minimal disruption.

 

Pleasingly, it was noted that the sprinkler installer subsequently received an apology from the person who had tried to talk the Housing Association out of 'wasting their money' on fitting sprinklers into the scheme.