Fire safety notices served on ALMO

Nottingham City Homes, an arm’s-length management organisation, was served with a notice ordering immediate safety improvements to a 13-storey block on 20 August.

It came nine days after Southwark Council in London was hit with enforcement notices on three apartment buildings following a fire which killed six people at its Lakanal House block in Camberwell. The news emerged as Inside Housing this week launched its Safe as Houses campaign to make tenants safer in their homes. The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority served the notices on Southwark after finding that escape corridor ceilings and fire doors in its three blocks were not fire resistant.

Fire door safety was also among the concerns which prompted Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue to serve NCH with a notice on its 1966 tower, Highcross Court, as were glazing and corridors in the building.

A spokesperson for the service said: ‘It’s about making sure the proper measures are taken and materials are used… that will help to protect people using the building in the event of a fire.’

The notice was issued following a routine inspection as part of an on-going programme.

A spokesperson for the ALMO, which manages 29,000 homes on behalf of Nottingham Council, said: ‘Although Highcross Court was different in construction material to the Camberwell block… there were structural similarities. So we reprioritised Highcross Court as high risk, and arranged for external fire risk assessors to survey the block on 15 July 2009.

‘Upgrades to the fire alarm at the block were already due to start in August 2009 as part of the ongoing programme and this work has recently been completed.’

The ALMO is now looking at the fire resistant doors in the block to ensure they have intumescent strips around them, which swell when heated to reduce the spread of fire.

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