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Tower block fire safety warning
Town Hall is warned over high-rise ‘deficiencies’ despite £4.5m investigation
FIRE chiefs have warned the Town Hall to address “deficiencies” in a Camden Town tower block only a year after the council concluded a £4.5million safety review of high-rise buildings
A formal notice from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority said that there had been “inadequate review of fire risk assessment by the responsible person”, “no emergency plan” and “inadequate maintenance of fire doors, emergency escape lighting and ventilation grills” before a fire at the Ampthill estate in May.
Residents of the 22-storey Oxenholme block said they were trapped in their flats while the single escape staircase filled with smoke during the fire, which inspectors concluded had been caused by a cigarette thrown into rubbish.
Joint secretary of the Ampthill estate tenants’ association, Paul Tomlinson, met housing chiefs on Tuesday night to discuss the case.
He said: “The council has responded to some of the issues raised by this, but the fact remains that they have not had a high enough priority for fire safety for many years. The main problem is that it is not sufficiently clear to people what they should do when there is a fire.”
The current Town Hall administration has spent millions investigating and improving fire safety in tower blocks. The New Journal’s own investigations into blazes in Camden revealed that a 2007 incident in Buckleberry, a block in Regent’s Park, had trapped residents after stairwells filled with smoke because missing fire doors had not been replaced, despite frequent reports.
The council escaped formal enforcement action in that case because they had hired independent fire inspectors to carry out a borough-wide review. A Freedom of Information request last year revealed that the inspectors, who had looked at all 1,200 estates in the borough, had found problems with dry risers – water supply points for firefighters – fire extinguishers and lifts.
The council said it was following the progress of the investigation into the fire in a 12-storey, single-staircase block in Camberwell which killed six people last week.
A council spokesman said yesterday (Wednesday): “We have implemented all the priority recommendations outlined in the fire risk assessments. We continuously review all our policies and procedures on fire safety and will be looking to see if there are any lessons to be learned from the fire in Camberwell.
“In addition, following the relatively minor fire on the Ampthill estate in May, the council carried out an updated fire risk assessment of the Oxenholme block in conjunction with the London Fire Brigade.
“The results of the assessment were presented to residents at a meeting on 7 July.”
Camden’s London Fire Brigade Borough Commander, Mick Quy, said yesterday that he was confident that Camden’s housing stock was generally safe. omething on this big a scale.” |
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