Sadly yet again we have to report a death due to fire - we offer our condolences to the family of Mr Brear.
From the report you can read here it seems an overheated chip pan was to blame for the fire.
But it does go to prove a point - a smoke alarm only warns you of a fire, it doesnt get you safely out of a burning building.
Seems Assistant Chief Fire Officer Craig McIntosh agrees and was quoted as saying
"If you hear a smoke detector and you can't rule out the risk of fire, ring 999. In this case, it could have made a difference between life and death.”
The article from the Telegraph and Argus also reported another chip pan fire in Great Horton on the same day.
i have been a firefighter for 15 years and i can assure you i have NEVER seen a smoke detector get somebody old or incapacitated for whatever reason out of a building.
ReplyDeleteUsing them to claim they can make cuts in appliances and staff is immoral. And it will get worse not better - poverty is on the up and thats a direct link to fire increases
my condolences to the family too, you have my deepest sympathy
ReplyDeleteEJ - WYFRS
it is always such a shock and so sad to hear of any death, BUT WE CANNOT LET THIS MANS DEATH BE IN VAIN......we must stop the cuts or this won't be so shocking news in the future
ReplyDeleteOur thoughts should first be with the family and friends of this gentleman. What is obvious is that no matter how close the fire engine was to this person he would not have survived because no one rang the fire brigade. Shame on his neighbours
ReplyDeleteAlthough i agree with you in principle unfortunately in practice it can be different matter. How many times do you hear car alarms, burgalar alarms and other noises and ignore them? I would like to say hand on heart i always react - but in reality I on many occasions ignore them. I for one will learn a lesson from this and always respond to an alarm.
ReplyDeletethe point is being missed I'm afraid.....the chief fire officer says that if you live in a low risk area with a working smoke detector you don't need the same resources as someone in a very high risk....obviously you do
ReplyDeleteOk silly me - but this is the man who built a lift in his own training school and forget to meaasure the top doors and they didnt fit - and whose mains stores building burnt down a few weeks ago (and i would have thought there were a few red faces over that partuclar incident ) And we pay him £130+k a year.........
ReplyDeleteBut the WYFRS smoke alarms dont work - their batteries have a very high failure rate. At least 30% of the HFSC are revisits.
ReplyDeletefurther to sarah's last comment about the fire at FSHQ. Because we changed policy where we don't automatically send a fire engine to fire alarms but send an officer first, this is what happened at the headquarters, obviously by the time the officer arrived and mobilised a fire engine vital minutes were lost causing greater damage, still at least the officer had plenty of time to fill in a risk assessment before proper fire engines arrived.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds a bit hit and miss. But i suppose if the paper work was sorted it ticks one box.
ReplyDelete