Six years ago this month, three women and three children lost their lives in a devastating fire at Lakanal House in London. Less than 12 months later, two firefighters died in another high-rise tragedy at Shirley Towers in Southampton.
At both inquests into these two fatal fires in local authority tower blocks, the coroners used their Rule 43 letters – recommendations to prevent future deaths – to say that social landlords should consider retrofitting sprinklers in high-rise blocks.
The reason is clear: sprinklers save lives. Nobody has died in a fire in the UK at a property with ‘a properly installed sprinkler system working the way it’s meant to’, says Keith Brooks, head of prevention and protection at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and deputy spokesperson on sprinklers for the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA). Fires in tower blocks are more dangerous for firefighters, he adds, and sprinklers help keep them safe by controlling fire growth, keeping escape routes tenable and mitigating against ‘unseen’ risks such as tangled cables, which were highlighted as an issue during the inquest into the deaths of firefighters at Shirley Towers.
‘CFOA would obviously like to see the number of high-rise blocks with sprinklers increase,’ says Mr Brooks.
Yet an investigation by Inside Housing has found that, to date, only 13% of stock-holding councils in England with high-rise accommodation have sprinklers within any of their tower block flats.
