South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue will be offering small and medium sized businesses a range of advice during the National Fire Chiefs Council’s (NFCC’s) Business Safety Week, which runs from 11th – 17th September.
The week aims to help businesses understand their fire safety responsibilities so they remain safe, legal, and compliant. Many fires in the workplace are preventable and some businesses never recover after a fire. Helping businesses to manage their fire risks and hazards, and potentially to save lives and safeguard their businesses against financial and commercial loss is of key importance.
Simple measures to reduce risks of a fire starting and ensuring staff know how to respond in the right way can help to keep people safe and makes business sense. At this time of year many businesses will be preparing for the Christmas period and may also be impacted by the cost of living crisis. It’s important that businesses consider the risk of fire in any changes they make and ensure all staff are aware of fire safety in the workplace.
From 1st October new fire safety legislation comes into effect in England and Wales. This will mean that many businesses and building owners need to check if and how this affects them to ensure they are complying with the regulations. The main changes are:
All businesses will need to record a fire risk assessment and fire safety arrangements in full – regardless of the number of employees, and size or type of business.
There are increased requirements for cooperation and coordination between Responsible Persons in multi occupied buildings or those where the occupier and owner are not the same person.
In residential buildings with two or more domestic premises residents must be provided with information on the risks from fire and the fire safety measures provided to keep them safe.
The campaign week will highlight these changes and highlight the advice that name of FRS can provide to ensure they remain complaint with the law.
There’s plenty of advice and support for businesses from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service so we encourage anyone that has questions or may not be sure about fire safety to contact us so we can help.
Gavin Tomlinson, NFCC’s Protection and Business Safety Committee Chair, said: “Fire and rescue services are committed to helping all types of businesses reduce the risk of fire in the workplace and be compliant with fire safety law. We don’t expect businesses to be experts that’s’ why we are here to provide help and advice. We encourage any business to work with their fire service to help prevent fires to help them remain productive, safe and legal.”
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue is celebrating after raising more than £1,400 from the Big SYFR Swim – smashing the £1,000 target.
Staff from across the organisation swam the equivalent of the perimeter of South Yorkshire (170 miles) to raise money for two incredible causes – The Fire Fighters Charity and The Royal Life Saving Society.
From frontline firefighters to corporate staff, each pledged to swim anything from 100 metres to several miles to support the challenge which ran from 22-29 May.
So far more than £1,400 has been raised but the final figure is expected to be over £1,700 once gift aid donations have been confirmed.
Chief Fire Officer Chris Kirby said: “Well done to everyone who took part in this swimming event and raised so much money for these two fantastic charities.
“Every life lost is one too many. That’s why we decided to support the Royal Life Saving Society and the work they do in helping people learn how to swim and enjoy the water safely.
The Royal Life Saving Society UK has a proud history of helping to reducing the number of lives lost to drowning.
Their mission is to be the leader in lifesaving and lifeguarding in the UK and Republic of Ireland, aiming to give everyone the potential to save lives and enjoy water, safely.
“I’m delighted that we are also supporting the Fire Fighters Charity who do such amazing work for firefighters and their families across the UK.”
The Fire Fighters Charity offers specialist, lifelong support for members of the UK fire services community, empowering individuals to live happier and healthier lives.
The charity supports serving fire service personnel and their families as well as those who are retired and provides them with information, advice and support whenever they need it.
The fire service is calling for the widespread adoption of sprinklers by businesses, schools and care homes, as it marks a national awareness week.
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has tackled 1,065 fires in non-domestic properties over the last three years. The most serious of these incidents can take fire engines several hours to tackle, as well as potentially putting the company involved out of business.
But business fire safety officers say fire sprinklers are the most effective way to suppress or even extinguish a before the fire service can arrive.
Sprinklers save lives and reduce injuries, protect firefighters who attend incidents and reduce the amount of damage to both property and the environment from fire.
Business fire safety manager Amy Jenkinson, said: “A sprinkler system can quickly suppress a fire before it gets out of control. When you consider the huge costs associated with a commercial premise fire such as rebuilding, relocation, loss of equipment, stock and trading, it seems like an obvious move to install a sprinkler system, but many businesses still don’t.”
The fire service, through the National Fire Chief’s Council, is currently campaigning for this threshold under which businesses must legally install sprinklers to be lowered- as well as calling for sprinklers to be installed in care homes and specialised housing, schools and student accommodation.
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has already helped pioneer a drive for sprinklers to be installed in residential properties. In 2011, sprinklers were retro-fitted into a block of flats in Gleadless after a grant from the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association. It was the first scheme of its kind in the country.
It has also provided funding to support the installation of sprinklers in high-risk domestic premises- like care homes and refuges- in a bid to protect vulnerable residents using the Fire Authority’s Safer Stronger Communities Reserve (SSCR).
“We’ve already had several success stories as a result of the sprinkler projects we’ve supported in South Yorkshire. In all of these incidents a fire has occurred, but the presence of sprinklers has drastically reduced the amount of damage and potentially saved lives,” said Amy.
Fire Sprinkler Week (15 to 21 May), coordinated nationally by the National Fire Chief’s Council, seeks to raise awareness of the benefits of sprinklers to businesses, high-risk domestic premises and educational establishments.
We know this is a very difficult time for everyone, including businesses, but it is vital that your business, and the people working for you, remain safe from fire.
With the Christmas period upon us we’ve put together some fire safety advice to help keep your business and those within the premises safe.
If you’re considering the introduction of any Christmas decorations into your premises over the festive period you should consider the following advice and also review your fire safety risk assessment before decorating.
Some of our key, general tips are:
Do not place Christmas trees, decorations or lights in the means of escape
Do not obstruct escape routes or escape doors
Do not obstruct or obscure fire escape signage, fire fighting equipment, emergency lighting, break glass call points, fire alarms sounders, emergency isolation points etc. with decorations.
Reviewing your fire safety risk assessment
Christmas decorations may increase the fire loading (flammable items/materials) and fire risk in your premises.
Your fire safety risk assessment should therefore be reviewed by a competent person prior to putting festive decorations in your premises.
There are five key steps to a fire risk assessment:
Identify the fire hazards
Identify people at risk
Evaluate, remove or reduce the risks
Record your findings, prepare an emergency plan & provide training
Take care with decorations and trees. Always use flame resistant/fire retardant products:
Decorations made of paper, cardboard and cotton wool should not be used – they are extremely flammable and can burn easily
Any Christmas decorations should be non-flammable/fire retardant – fire retardant decorations are available from suppliers
Positioning of decorations should not be in close proximity to sources of ignition
Decorations must not obstruct or obscure fire escape signage, firefighting equipment or other safety features
Christmas trees
If you have a natural Christmas tree ensure that it is watered daily because a Christmas tree which has dried out can be highly flammable
Avoid placing Christmas trees in areas where they could be easily knocked over
Christmas trees should be placed in a suitable stable container to prevent it from falling over
Christmas trees should never be put in positions where they obstruct or obscure escape routes or escape doors, fire escape signage, firefighting equipment or other safety features
Do not place Christmas trees, decorations or lights in the means of escape
Electrical lights and decorations
Don’t overload electrical circuits
All electrical lighting and electrical decorations should be tested before use by a competent person
All electrical lighting and electrical decorations should conform to the relevant British Safety Standard (marked with the appropriate Kite or CE mark)
Do not place electrical lights or electrical decorations in close proximity to combustible materials
Switch all Christmas decorations off at night
Extra stock over the festive period
Storage of extra stock should be considered by your fire risk assessment
All means of escape, doors, routes, stairways must be kept clear and unobstructed – goods and excess packaging should not be allowed to reduce widths in these areas – even temporarily
If you have extra stock you should ensure you have capacity to store the stock safely without blocking the means of escape or any fire exit doors or impinge upon any fire door which has to be kept clear or closed
Do not wedge open fire doors
You should make sure stock is not in close proximity to ignition sources, or too close to smoke detectors or sprinkler heads as this could affect their operation
Staff training
It is essential that all permanent staff and additional staff who may be employed on a temporary basis to cover this busy period are adequately trained regarding the action to be taken in the event of a fire and are made familiar with all fire precautions applicable to your building
Capacity
Do not exceed the recommended occupancy limits for your premises (your occupancy limits should be identified in your fire risk assessment)
Covid–19 and fire safety
Any control measures for Covid-19 should be carefully considered by your fire risk assessment before being implemented and should not adversely affect fire safety measures.
Whether you’re self-isolating, working from home or just social distancing, the likelihood is that you will be spending more time at home over the next few weeks.
This makes it even more important to make sure you and your loved ones are safe from fire.
That’s why we’ve developed the below quiz – to test your knowledge, get you thinking about fire safety AND give you the chance to win one of two £100 Amazon vouchers that we’ve got to give away.
Whether you are home working, self-isolating or social distancing, we know you’ll probably be spending more time at home over the next few weeks. This could increase the chances of you having a fire in your home.
Fortunately, by taking four easy steps, you can seriously reduce the risk to you and your loved ones:
1.Don’t leave cooking unattended – and ditch the chip pan immediately
Distraction is the leading cause of house fire nationally. In fact, most of the cooking fires we attend are down to somebody starting cooking, forgetting about it and leaving it to burn. The rest usually involve chip pans – please use oven chips instead.
2.Make sure you’re not leaving clothes, tea-towels and other items near heaters, hobs and other heat sources
Another leading cause of house fire is people leaving things like clothes and tea-towels on hobs and portable heaters. Items like these can easily set on fire so it’s vital you keep them away from naked flames and other heat sources.
3.Check electrical appliances, don’t overload sockets and NEVER use faulty items or white goods
Extension leads can only handle so much power – plug too many things in and the chances are they will blow. Faulty goods can also be a big issue, too. If your washing machine or tumble dryer starts playing up – stop using it and get it checked immediately.
4.Make sure you have working smoke alarms and test them regularly
Smoke alarms save lives, but only if you have them and they are working. They can give you an early warning of a fire – early enough for you to get out safely. Buy them. Fit them. Test them.
During what are very challenging times for us all we’d ask that, as well as taking on board this advice yourself, you pass the messages on to your friends, neighbours and relatives – especially those over 70-years-old.
Be assured, too, that accidental house fires are very rare and our firefighters stand ready to respond to 999 calls, across South Yorkshire, as and when needed.
We’re pleased to be supporting the Doncaster Community Hub. This has just been opened to support the most vulnerable during these extremely challenging times. It has been established by a range of organisations and will be based at the Doncaster Culture & Leisure Trust. The hub will provide:
· Helpline available 7 days a week from 8.00am to 8.00pm – Telephone: 01302 430300 – anyone can ring this if they are or know of someone who is vulnerable and has no other support · Practical support such as urgent food supplies, shopping, hot food, collection of medication etc will be a priority · Online chat, signposting and connecting people to other groups and volunteers to provide advice on exercising at home, keeping connected or just for regular contact · A proactive team who will be calling vulnerable people to see how they are and find out if they need any support · Helping to co-ordinate volunteers – collecting information about what voluntary and community sector can offer and supporting and co-ordinating voluntary effort · There is also an email address: enquiries@dncommunityhub.org.uk and a web site: www.dncommunityhub.org.uk
Anyone self-isolating in Doncaster is urged to fill out a form online – www.doncaster.gov.uk/self-isolation-form – or call 01302 736000.
Local Updates – Rotherham Heroes
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has set up a volunteer scheme – Rotherham Heroes – to support the district’s most vulnerable.
If you, or someone you know, is living alone, vulnerable and in need of help, the heroes are on hand. They can help with:
Essential shopping and dropping off food parcels
Being a friendly voice on the other end of the phone
Picking up prescriptions from the chemist
Taking your dog out for a walk once a day
To access the support – which should only be used by those who really need it – call 01709 807319 between 9am and 5pm. Alternatively you can complete a form on their website – www.rotherham.gov.uk/volunteer.
Make sure the property is safe before you enter and start to clear up.
Arrange for services, such as gas and electricity, to be turned off. The electricity and gas supplies should remain off until you are sure it is safe to turn them back on.
Remember, items that have been in contact with floodwater may be contaminated and contain sewage, therefore make sure that anything that has been in contact with the water is safely cleaned.
Open your doors and windows to ventilate your home.
Be prepared, have a torch at hand when entering the property and do not use candles.
Do not go near any exposed wiring, as it may still be live. Do not attempt any electrical repairs or connection of temporary supplies yourself – always use a registered electrician.
Do not use any mains powered electrical appliances in the areas affected by the flood until advised that it is safe to do so.
If safe to use them, make sure heaters are kept well away from soft furnishings to prevent fires
Carbon monoxide poisoning can occur if diesel or petrol generators are used indoors
People who hoard are being helped to change their habits, thanks to the fire service funded work of a Sheffield mental health charity.
Sheffield Mind’s ‘Magpies’ project is part way through a two year mission to support people who hoard under a scheme paid for under money set aside from South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority’s reserves.
Specially trained support workers meet with people for weekly one-to-one sessions where they discuss their lifestyles, the possible reasons behind their hoarding histories and ways they could change their behaviour.
A training exchange sees the charity offer mental health awareness training to fire service staff how to spot the signs of hoarding, whilst the fire service have trained Sheffield mind staff in basic fire prevention advice. A self-help support group is also attended by more than a dozen people with hoarding issues each month.
The project only has capacity to work with up to 10 people one-to-one at any given time, but is starting to have a big impact on those it is designed to help.
Its clients include ‘Mandy’ who has limited mobility and has hoarded items for several years after leaving an abusive relationship. Mandy’s home was severely cluttered, with whole rooms inaccessible and escape routes and corridors blocked- putting her at greater risk in the event that a fire did start in her home. But by working with Mandy over a period of several months, support workers have helped her to sort through her belongings and to make decisions to let them go, significantly reducing the fire risk hazard and making more space in her home.
Sheffield Mind Head of Operations, Rob Horsley, said: “Hoarding behaviours are a very complex issue which are about far more than someone simply collecting large quantities of things over a long period of time- often it is linked to other, significant life events or mental health difficulties and requires a considered, thoughtful approach to address. We’re pleased that the work we are doing is starting to have a tangible impact on people’s safety from fire.”
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Area Manager Steve Helps said: “We know there are some common factors involved in nearly all of our most serious fires, which is why our focus in recent years has been on targeting our prevention work at those who are at greatest risk. Our work with Sheffield Mind is a really good example of this as, although the number of people the project supports is quite small, the impact on their safety is huge.”
The project was awarded £88,000 under the Stronger Safer Communities Reserve. The fund is a Fire Authority scheme which reinvests money into local communities to support our work to prevent emergencies. The money has been set aside from the Authority’s reserves.
For our latest campaign we’re asking people tofind the timeto visitthe older people in their livesand go through our Grandparent Check, which asksa series of questionsincluding whether they live alone, smoke, need a walking aid and use emollient creams.
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Our statistics show that fire risk can increase with age and, if you answer yes to any of the questions above in relation to an older friend, neighbour or relative,they may be at higher risk and be eligiblefor a free home safety checkby our staff. Check today by filling out ourhome safetycheck referral form, below.
In the meantime,help make them saferby:
Making sure they have working smoke alarms
Ensuring they’ve got a proper ash tray, if they smoke
Getting them a working phone that stays with them all the time
Speaking to them about what to do in the event of a fire
Helping them de-clutter, particularly their exit routes
If you’re filling this formfor someone else pleaseensure you enter their details on their behalf. Ensure that the contact number provided can be used to organise a visit.
Stop putting your animals at risk – that’s the message from firefighters, and a number of special guests, as they launch a new safety campaign aiming to drive down electrical fires across South Yorkshire.
Figures released by South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue today, to coincide with Black Friday, show there have been more than 350 electrical house fires in the county over the last three years.
Data also shows that crews have attended over 76 house fires in the last three years where pets were involved – highlighting that it isn’t just humans who can be affected by fire.
With most of these incidents being described by fire officers as easily preventable – the service has joined forces with a number of local ‘celebs’ to produce a series of online videos that highlight some of the everyday electrical fire risks in the home.
Sheffield Lord Mayor Magid Magid joins Pete McKee, Radio Sheffield’s Sam Cleasby and her husband, and former Arctic Monkeys tour manager, Timm Cleasby, in the series – with the first of which being launched today on social media.
The launch of these videos will also be followed by a range of stalls and educational talks across the county – with people across South Yorkshire urged to act on the three pieces of advice being given out by the fire service.
Area Manager Steve Helps, head of the joint police and fire community safety department, said: “When you leave the house in a morning, with the washing machine on and various electrical devices on charge, do you ever think about how your dog, or maybe your rabbit, would escape in the event of a fire? How about your fish, or budgie?
“Anybody who has a pet knows that they are part of the family but they are often overlooked when it comes to escaping in an emergency – with fire as a prime example. We know people are busy and don’t want to ask too much, so we’ve pulled out three simple things that people can do to keep their animal friends safer.
“Most of our electrical fires could have been easily prevented and the most common causes are things like leaving electrical appliances (like washing machines and tumble dryers) on overnight and when people are out, as well as overloading plug sockets.
“Buying ‘knock-off’ electrical equipment, which does not meet safety standards is also something we strongly discourage, as it can be prone to malfunctioning and starting fires. A good rule of thumb is that if it sounds too cheap to be true, it probably is.”
The service’s three top tips to safeguard your pets from electrical fires are:
Don’t leave appliances on, and devices charging, at night and when you’re out of the house – to eliminate the risk of these malfunctioning and catching fire.
Buy electrical equipment which is genuine and from trusted sources – ‘knock off’ phone chargers and batteries are prone to setting on fire.
Don’t overload plug sockets – exceeding the advised current rating (13 amps) can cause them to overheat and catch fire.
Earlier this month firefighters from Central and Lowedges were called to reports of a fire on Reney Road, Sheffield. Upon arrival they found a dog trapped inside a heavily smoke logged flat after a toaster had completely melted.
A different incident, which took place a year ago on Princess Street, Doncaster, saw two dogs trapped in their smoke-filled house during a kitchen fire. They had a lucky escape that day but their owner, Shaleen Ross, said it could have been much worse.
“When you leave the house you don’t think about what might happen when you’re out, especially to your pets,” she added.
“Fortunately the dogs found an air pocket, they got lucky, but we still had to move out of the house for three months as they kitchen was destroyed and there was smoke damage to other areas of the house. It was six weeks before Christmas too.
“Our smoke alarms did activate and were going off for a while, but nobody noticed. All I would say is be careful and make sure things are switched off before you leave the house, especially when you’ve got pets who aren’t able to get themselves out.”
More recently, on Sunday 17 November, crews from Doncaster and Edlington attended a house fire on Anchorage Lane, in Sprotbrough, which was caused by a faulty washing machine that had been left on overnight.
Following the fire, Watch Manager Gary Ridgeway, who was the incident commander on the night, has called for people to make sure washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers and other electrical appliances are switched off overnight.
He said: “This incident started after the occupant got in at night and turned the washing machine on before he went to bed. There was a fault in the washing machine which started the fire, filled the kitchen with smoke and caused a significant amount of damage to the property.
“At 2am in the morning, the two people who lived at the house would have had nowhere to go, had it not have been for their neighbours. Fortunately the smoke alarms sounded and they were able to get out, so the outcome wasn’t too bad.
“This is a serious issue for us, though. People think that putting the washer on overnight will be cheaper and save time. It may do, in some cases, but you have to think about the risk and what could happen if there’s a fault and you’re not there to react quickly.
“I would say it’s just not worth it, the cost of some electricity and time is nothing compared to the lasting damage that comes with a fire – be it injury to you, your family or a pet, a kitchen that is completely destroyed or something far worse.”
