Lewisham tower block fire
A fire broke out this morning at a recently built block of flats in Central Lewisham on Loampit Vale.
Evacuated at four this morning. Fire is out and everybody is safe, but very concerned there were no alarms going off. So grateful to the people in the buildings opposite screaming their tits off to alert us. #lewisham #fire pic.twitter.com/c51nPX6rEp
— Christoph Mayr (@grischdoff) June 14, 2018
Pictures on social media show the blaze taking hold on the 12th floor.
Concerning reports also seem to be appearing that no fire alarm went off.
However the blaze did not spread upwards. The building is brick and does not feature cladding similar to Grenfell and other recently built blocks.
The fire was successfully put out by the London Fire Brigade.
The residents must have been very frightened, but at least it was not another Grenfell. Very worrying about the lack of an alarm, though.
Good this happened at area of brick. Others have cladding panels.
Is it just me who finds the blocks nearby with cladding panels really unsafe looking? Hopefully after what’ happened at Grenfell also sorts of Cladding similar to Grenfells will stop being used and modern Brick designs start being used more.
I am not entirely sure that people understand how fire alarms in residential buildings work. Each flat should have a smoke and heat detector which will activate should there be a fire. BUT it will only activate in the flat where the fire starts or wherever there is such a strong source of heat/smoke to activate it. There should be an inaudible alarm throughout the building connected to the AOV system which would open the windows in the common areas to help evacuate smoke. However, there is no centralised alarm to inform people there is a fire. Blame that on the fire brigade who claim such an alarm would lead to false alarms and stampedes on the fire escape as people don’t know how to evacuate properly. Hence the stay-put policy in residential towers. I wholeheartedly do not agree with this rule but until any authority changes these rules that is the status quo.
I kind of see where the fire brigade is coming from on the question of a ‘central alarm’ Too many alarms, and people become complacent or will even attempt to disable the system. In the case of this particular building, I think I read that it has a sprinkler system in place.
The ‘stay put’ policy is normally the correct one. However, in the case of Grenfell not only was the cladding deadly, but the fire door fitted to the flats were wholly inadequate. A fire door should be capable of keep a fire contained for 30 or 60 minutes – plenty of time for the fire brigade to attend and deal with the fire.