It’s sprinkler awareness week so we’ve asked Lela, one of our Fire Safety Officers, to tell you a little about how our sprinklers may have saved lives and our plans to install them into over 2,000 of our homes across Newport.
“Following the tragic events at Grenfell in 2017, we worked with partners, including South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, to reduce fire risk and make sure our residents felt safe in their homes.
“As part of this work, we installed sprinklers into individual flats and communal areas of each of our three tower blocks less than a month after the tragedy.
“These not only provided almost immediate comfort for our residents, but additional peace of mind for us too. Our priority has always been the safety of our residents, so knowing the sprinklers provide an additional fire safety measure gave us further assurance we were not only meeting but exceeding our fire safety regulations requirements.
“In recent weeks, our sprinklers activated to bring a chip pan fire under control within one minute.
“We are very pleased in how the sprinklers worked because they worked exactly how they were designed to work - they activated in the room the fire started in and put it out almost immediately.
“We can never be certain but our sprinklers may have saved lives. This incident has given our residents additional assurance our fire safety measures work effectively and do their job – to protect our residents if a fire breaks out in their home and minimise the devastating consequences fire can have.
“We strongly believe sprinklers are a reliable and sustainable fire safety measure that can greatly reduce risk of death, injury, property damage and harm to our communities. That’s why we’re installing these potentially life-saving sprinklers in more than 2,000 of our homes across Newport.
“We work with South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and independent safety experts to make sure that fire safety standards in our buildings meet or exceed Welsh Government regulations.
“Our duty of care to you means we must comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Installing automatic sprinkler systems in homes is just one of the ways we are reducing fire risk to you and your neighbours and keeping you safe in your homes.”
#ThinkSprinkler