Five councils share £180,000 to install sprinklers in council properties
Wandsworth Council has secured funding for portable sprinkler unitafter winning a London Fire Brigade competition.
The competition was launched after they revealed that they deal with more than ten fires a week in London’s care homes and sheltered accommodation.
Open to social and private housing providers the money was awarded to projects which demonstrated the best value and innovation in protecting the capital’s most vulnerable residents from fire.
One of the priorities for LFB was to reduce fires in care homes and sheltered housing. During 2013/14 there were 527 fires in London’s care homes and sheltered accommodation, with two people dying and 34 people being injured.
Deputy Commissioner Rita Dexter said: “Sprinklers not only stop fires from spreading and put them out quickly, they save lives. We’re especially concerned about those who may not know how to react, or be able to react quickly enough, if they hear a smoke alarm.
“All of our competition winners offered genuine safety improvements to residents We’re delighted at the example they’re setting and hope that other housing providers will now follow their lead and install sprinklers.”
The funding earmarked by the Brigade for the Sprinklers Competition has been allocated from the Fire Prevention Grant it receives from the Government specifically for fire prevention work. London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority members agreed that the money should be allocated to support a competition designed to incentivise local authorities to install sprinklers and to help promote the Authority's sprinkler strategy.
August 1, 2014