Fire Safety Advice

Your building will have a Fire Action plan displayed at the main entrance. This will have been prepared following a professional Fire Risk Assessment. Ensure everyone in your flat knows the plan. A copy can be found on the Resident Portal, but if you need a copy contact us and we will email a copy to you.

There follows some general advice.

The three most basic things to remember:

Fire Prevention – do not do anything in your property which creates a fire risk. In 2019 there was a large fire in a block of flats because a resident lit a barbeque on his balcony.

Fire Detection – ensure your property has smoke detectors and maintain them by testing them regularly, changing the battery at least annually and keeping them free of dust.

Evacuation – ensure you and your family know the escape routes from your building in case they need to evacuate and where to assemble once out. As mentioned above, your building will have a Fire Action plan displayed at the main entrance. Ensure everyone in your flat knows the plan. If you need a copy let us know and we can email it to you.

Maintain the front door to your flat

The front door to your flat is vital for the safety of others. If a fire breaks out in your flat ensure you evacuate and close the front door behind you. Modern front doors, including any glazing and hinges, are designed to hold back a fire and smoke for at least thirty minutes, allowing others in the building to evacuate safely. Your Lease will prohibit you from doing anything that puts the safety of others in the building at risk. If you have damaged your front door or altered it by, for example, putting in a different letter box, you may have compromised its ability to hold back a fire and block the escape route of others past it.

If you wish to change the front door to your flat, or make any changes to it, please contact us before doing so, and never leave your front door propped open for any reason.

Alterations inside your flat

Modern flats are designed to be compartmented, akin to a box which contains a fire without it spreading to other flats. If you carry out any alterations it is essential that you do nothing which may compromise this fire containment, such as drilling holes through walls and floors. In most cases your Lease will require you to obtain prior consent for any alterations. If you wish to make alterations to your flat, please contact us before doing so.

Internal doors may have self-closers on them. This is designed to contain a fire in one room for long enough to allow all occupants elsewhere in the flat to evacuate safely. You should not remove self-closers or keep doors propped open.

Smoke Detectors

Please ensure the smoke detectors in your flat are maintained, kept clean and, if battery operated, change the batteries every year. Test the detectors monthly to ensure they are operating correctly. Smoke detectors should not be fixed in bathrooms or cooking areas where steam, condensation or fumes could give rise to false alarms

Emergency Lighting

In a fire, the lights in the communal corridors and stairs may fail. Many buildings, but not all, will have emergency lighting that will come on if the main lights fail. It is advisable to keep a strong torch close to your front door in any event to assist you to evacuate in low light, even if your building has emergency lighting.

Why are there no Fire Extinguishers in the communal corridors or stairs?

If a fire breaks out in the building, the primary concern is the safety of the residents. Anyone affected by fire or smoke needs to evacuate immediately for their own safety and raise the alarm.

Stopping to try and work out how to operate a fire extinguisher and attack a fire delays such evacuation and puts that resident, and others, at additional risk.

Furthermore, there are different types of extinguisher for different types of fire. Using the wrong extinguisher on a fire may aggravate it severely putting the resident and others in even greater danger.

Fires should only be tackled by the Fire Service, who are trained in doing so. Residents should not put themselves and others at risk by doing so.

Do not store items in communal corridors or stairs

It is very important that communal corridors and stairwells are not used for storage of bicycles, pushchairs, shoes or other items.

Residents sometimes ask how leaving shoes outside their front door could in any way pose a health and safety risk. But imagine in a fire when residents are trying to evacuate, possibly in low light and in a very stressed state, shoes that may have been kicked around the communal corridor could easily be tripped over.

A bicycle that may have fallen over or a pushchair would pose an even greater obstacle for people to overcome.

Do not store items in riser cupboards

Cupboards in communal areas are there for the use of the freeholder or RMC. They do not form part of any flat and are not for residents' use. Many contain gas pipes, electricity meters or other communal electrical systems such as the door entry system or television switches. It is very important that residents do not use such cupboards as extra storage. If there is an electrical fault a spark could ignite items stored, or such items could aggravate a fire.

Any item found in a communal area, including riser cupboards, entrance halls, stairwells and landings may be removed and disposed of without notice. Neither Managed Partnerships Limited, the Freehold or Resident Management Company or the contractor removing and disposing of such item, will be responsible for any item removed or other loss or damage caused.