‘Landlords must improve fire safety’

Southampton coroner Keith Wiseman this week wrote to housing minister Mark Prisk with a series of recommendations following the deaths of firefighters Alan Bannon and James Shears in the city’s Shirley Towers block in April 2010.

Mr Wiseman wants Mr Prisk to encourage all social landlords to retrofit sprinklers in all tower blocks over 30 metres high.

He wants to see an obligation placed on landlords to provide better signage at ground level so firefighters can read them in smoke-filled corridors.

He also recommended that building regulations should be changed so brackets and clips which hold cables in place - such as those supplying power to smoke alarms or internet access - are fire-resistant.

In his letter Mr Wiseman said that ‘obvious precautions to prevent the fire occurring were not taken’ and that ‘operating conditions’ which saw the firefighters get tangled in cables that had fallen from ceilings ‘were extremely difficult and dangerous’ and ‘significantly contributed’ to the deaths.

Retrofitting existing blocks with sprinklers could cost landlords significant sums - although this is far less than the cost faced if blocks are substantially damaged in a blaze.

Research by the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association into the fitting of sprinklers into 47 flats in the Callow Mount block in Sheffield in 2011 revealed a total cost of £55,134.

Southampton Council estimates that retrofitting its 16 tower blocks would cost a minimum of £2 million. It is currently carrying out feasibility research to look at whether the work should be carried out in some or all of the blocks. It is also researching the feasibility of installing fire-resistant clips on domestic wiring in its blocks.

Dave Curry, deputy chief fire officer at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and director of prevention for the Chief Fire Officers Association, said there were lessons to be learned from the Shirley Towers fire.

‘Our own research has proven that retrofitting sprinklers is cost effective,’ he said. ‘The likelihood is that we would not be having this conversation about Shirley Towers if we had retrofitted sprinklers at some point.’