New data has come to light stating that universities must start prioritising fire safety. This data has arisen from the consistent issues involving fire incidents within student accommodations around the UK.
Research conducted by Eaton, a power management company, suggests that universities need to invest more in existing technology that will improve fire safety for students and staff.
The research consisted of 76 universities across the UK, to investigate how universities accommodate to fire safety standards.
One in four universities received complaints on fire safety or building evacuation. This could be due to the high numbers of institutions only abiding to the minimum expected standard required by regulation in the UK.
Only 2 months ago, there was a significant fire at a block of student flats in Bolton. It was reported that students were lucky to have known it was a real fire due to false fire alarms constantly setting off for weeks prior to the incident. Students from the Bolton University Accommodation were not the only victims of the quality of fire safety precautions.
Just last week, a student accommodation building in Leeds was found to have multiple fire safety failings, leading to the main contractor of the building and 3 other firms being fined a total of £670,000. Following this, Chris Kemp, Senior Fire Protection Manager for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “This case demonstrates the importance those responsible for building construction, development and occupation have in understanding their duties and acting responsibly to take account of the safety of the people they are responsible for.”
This begs the question; how many other student accommodations have slipped through the system with fire safety?
This is where Wessex Fire & Security step in. As the chosen independent provider of fire services across the south-west by some of the leading Universities such as The University of Bath, we have gained a national reputation for excellence in everything we do.
Our huge breadth of fire services and products span the supply, installation and maintenance of fire alarms, extinguishers and suppression systems. We also provide fire marshal training and much, much more, and deliver maintenance and monitoring packages across all of our services.
With risk of fire increasing across student accommodations throughout the UK, consider Wessex Fire & Security as your solution to keeping students safe.
