Care home severely damaged by fire

Around 45 firefighters have tackled a blaze at a timber frame building used as residential care home for disabled people.

The fire started in the roof of the chalet-style building, in Barham, near Canterbury. The fire, reported around 11.30 on 9 November, spread quickly throughout the building. The home is a residential care home for the disabled, but was empty at the time. Fire crews had the incident under control by 1.30pm. An aerial ladder platform remained on the scene until after 9pm, to dampen down hotspots on the roof. Most - if not all - of the residents’ possessions were destroyed.

Sprinkler System works again

A sprinkler system has contained what may have been a major fire at a factory in Staffordshire.
Around 50 staff were evacuated from IMI Norgren in Lichfield after an industrial press caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday 27 October. Some 40 firefighters were called to deal with the incident, but the activation of the sprinklers meant that they were not all needed.

The damage was limited to the machinery and some slight heat damage to the roof directly above. Once the fire was out, crews used hose reel jets to cool the machinery and then ventilated the factory.  Sprinklers are fitted throughout the manufacturing and storage areas of the site.

Speaking later that morning, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service station manager Mick Jahn said: "The activation of the sprinklers meant we were able to quickly bring the fire under control and allow some of the appliances to leave the incident, so they were available for other emergencies. We would probably still be there dealing the fire now had the sprinklers not been in use.

"We’d urge all businesses to fit sprinkler systems. As this incident has highlighted they do prevent the spread of fires, and so minimise the economic cost of a fire - which is even more important during these difficult financial times."

Poundstretcher fined £55,000 over fire escapes

Only one out of six fire exits could be used in a busy bargain store, Leeds Crown Court was told, and the consequences of a fire at Poundstretcher in Castleford could have been "frankly appalling," said Judge Jonathan Rose.

The store on Carlton Street would have been a "death trap," he declared. Yesterday the judge fined the firm a total of £51,500 with £3,449 costs for seven breaches of the Fire Safety Order 2005. He pointed out that the business had twice been prosecuted last year for similar breaches at its Halifax and Wakefield stores and had been fined a total of £20,500 for those offences.

These convictions were warnings to the company but were not enough to make Poundstretcher do an urgent review of fire safety in its other stores, said the judge. "Poundstretcher had not put their house in order by October 7, 2009, when, as a result of a chance passing by a fire safety officer, it was observed that the Castleford store was failing in its duties," he said. Toni Wharton, prosecuting, said that combustible material was stored en route to one fire exit and trolleys blocked another. Persons who used a ground floor exit could have been trapped in a stairwell "like a tin of beans," she said.

Yorkshire Post

Three children died in house fire

Three children have sadly died in a house fire after a fire broke out at Clarence Avenue, Bridlington, shortly before midnight. Humberside Fire and Rescue Service said the children, one girl and two boys aged three, five and nine, died. The children's mother Samantha Hudson, 27, is said to be in a serious but stable condition at Scarborough General Hospital.

Mark Rhodes, head of operations for Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, said it was too early to establish the cause. He said: "We were faced at the time with a very severe house fire. Now this is a typical sort of three-storey terraced property, fire on the ground floor but very intense, very dense smoke logging right throughout the property.

Fire sprinkler for underground car parks

An underground car park in the Dutch City of Haarlem has been severely damaged by a fire which also destroyed at least 26 cars.

According to the European Fire Sprinkler Network (EFSN), smoke from the fire spread to a court building and concert theatre, and heat from the fire damaged the structure of the car park.

The news website Dutchnews.nl reported that the fire broke out last Tuesday evening and led to the evacuation of nearby hotels and cafes. The fire brigade eventually got the blaze under control by flooding the lower deck of the car park.

EFSN also reports that Cynthia Ortega-Martijn, a Dutch member of parliament, has called for a change in the law so that hospitals, care homes, schools and car parks are fitted with sprinklers.

Fire sprinkler system save lives in warehouse fire

THE lives of around 120 people were saved thanks to a sprinkler system that activated during a warehouse fire in Walsall.

The alarm was raised at 7.12pm last Thursday at discount store Hootys Supplies in Longacres, Willenhall. Four crews were sent to tackle the blaze, which involved large quantities of packaging materials stored on shelves below a mezzanine floor at the back of the large two-storey prefabricated premises.
The sprinklers in the immediate area helped contain the fire.

Station commander Mick Shears said: “This incident demonstrates just how important sprinklers are.

“The system stopped the fire from spreading to the retail area at the front of the building, prevented a more serious blaze and helped safeguard the lives of more than 100 people in the store at the time.”