Fire safety is absolutely crucial in all residential settings.
For those living in extremely close living conditions, such as in apartment buildings, the chances of a fire outbreak in the building are significantly higher.
Even a small fire in your flat or apartment will not only affect you but will also have a knock-on effect on your neighbours, posing a genuine risk of smoke and water damage.
For this reason, it is vital that you take your fire safety seriously, and by following these 5 simple tips you will be able to protect both your own home and those nearby.
1. Install Effective Smoke Alarms
It is now a legal requirement to have an interlinked system of fire alarms in place.
Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms are the single most effective way to prevent fires from starting in the first place.
These devices should be installed by a professional electrician and tested regularly (at least once a month) to ensure continued operation.
If you notice that the smoke alarms installed in the communal area of your building are beeping, or a red light is showing, make sure to contact the building management immediately.
2. Avoid Electrical Problems
Electrical faults account for a huge number of domestic fires in the UK every single year, with the high current produced posing a risk of fire just as high as that of flame-based sources.
Make sure not to overload electrical outlets and use surge protectors and other similar safety devices to protect plug sockets.
You should also conduct regular examinations of outlets, equipment, and cords, for signs of wearing or malfunction and turn off the socket and call an electrician immediately if you have any concerns.
3. Take care when cooking
Open flames, for obvious reasons, pose a real and constant risk of fire and you should be extremely careful when using them within your apartment.
Make sure to monitor pots and pans at all times when cooking on a gas stove that uses open flames to ensure that they do not spill over and cause a fire.
Keep flammable materials such as towels, oven mitts, and clothing well away from stoves and avoid wearing any loose-fitting clothing whilst cooking.
Just because they don’t have open flames, however, does not mean that electric ovens and stoves are not a genuine fire risk, so make sure to take care when using these appliances and have them serviced on a regular basis.
4. Be careful in communal areas
Many apartment buildings have shared facilities such as laundry rooms that require their own specific fire safety measures.
If using a drying room make sure to clean the dryer lint traps prior to using the machines, and never overload.
Ensure that the laundry room is fitted with working, modern fire alarms and that they are being regularly tested.
If you are at all concerned about any of the electrical appliances in the shared areas of your building, contact the building management.
If they do not act or you are concerned that appropriate action has not been implemented, contact your local Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA).
5. Take note of emergency fire procedures
Building managers have a legal responsibility to do what they can to protect the health and safety of residents in their building.
A major part of this is ensuring that a fire safety risk assessment has been conducted and that there are effective protocols in place should a fire break out.
By making yourself aware of the details of the building’s fire safety plan you can help to make sure that if a fire is detected the correct evacuation procedure is followed.
Find the nearest fire exit to your apartment and count the doors between you and the exit itself so that you can navigate even if the building is full of smoke.
Waking Watch
For some apartment buildings, general fire safety advice is not sufficient, and additional measures must be put in place to ensure the safety of residents.
For buildings that have been found to have flammable materials used in the external wall system, similar to the condemned cladding partially responsible for the tragic events of the Grenfell Tower Fire in 2017, a waking watch service may by required.
What is Waking Watch: Waking watch is a service offered by highly trained fire marshals who will continually patrol the building 24/7 searching for fires.
If a fire is detected they will alert all residents, notify the emergency services, ensure a swift evacuation and liaise with the fire service once they arrive.
Waking watch must be put in place in any residential high-rise building with no common fire alarm system in place until either one is installed, or the condemned material is replaced.
Here at Prime Secure we offer both industry leading waking watch officers and a common alarm system that can easily be converted into a common fire alarm once the building issues have been resolved.
