Agenda item

To receive a report and interview Verona Clark, Borough Commander for the Southwark Fire Brigade on key Fire Safety Issues listed below:

• Key fire safety issues across the borough.

• Support efforts to enhance fire safety, as scrutiny commission members, and also as ward councillors.

• Updates since last year on figures of buildings in the borough with known safety issues relating to cladding, and/or measures in place to counter potential serious safety hazards. 

• Updates since last year on the impact of Covid on the service and its effect on response times and/or broader service levels.

• Fire safety risks posed by empty homes in the borough and mitigating them.

• Additional areas/information for the commission to note and/or review.

• The comparison of Bonfire night, fireworks incidents attended this year compared to last few years.

The commission first received a report from Verona Clark, Borough Commander for the London Fire Brigade in Southwark on the following points.

·  Risk areas such as high rises and commercial buildings.

·  Key fire safety issues and fire safety work undertaken by engaging with the community

§  Poor loading and overcharging of e-bikes in residential properties especially communal areas in high rise buildings.

§  Fire safety team enforcing legislation in shops where counterfeit chargers that are the main cause of fires.

§  Encouraging business to do fire risk assessments online with the support of the Local Authorities.

§  Home fire safety visits and Public Relations to encourage people to resolve issues with their recalled white goods such as tumble dryers and washing machines that pose a fire risk.

§  Poor ventilations in shops where people are sleeping due to tough economic times, this is being handled by the fire brigade enforcement teams, fire safety inspections team and also liaising with the councils fire safety teams.

·  Scrutiny commission members and ward councillors to encourage and promote home fire safety visits which constituents and residents can book through telephone, text messages, online through londonfire.gov.uk or visiting the local fire station thus providing residents with bespoke fire safety advice.

·  Drying of clothes on electric heaters rather than using gas for heating, increasing the fire risk due to exposed elements such as filament tubes.

·  Safe smoking outdoors and discouraging charging e-vapes overnight.

·  Encouraging use of branded mobile phone, e-scooter and e-bike chargers.

·  95 buildings in Southwark with cladding related fire safety issues Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) there are 9 buildings that fall under simultaneous evacuation but are not cladded but do undergo regular checks.

·  Minimum of 12 visits a week to high rise commercial buildings.

·  Quarterly meetings and joint visits with fire safety department, brigade fire safety teams and council fire safety teams to identify issues and data being fed back to the head office and fire safety teams.

·  240 high rise buildings and new developments undergo inspections at every building stage.

·  Southwark Fire Brigade has the best response time with targets of 6 minutes for the first instance and 8 minutes for the second instance.

·  Backlog of fire safety visits during Covid recovering.

·  No existing issues with empty homes with regards to fire safety, alarms triggered would come through directly to fire brigade or reported by public. No life risk thus different approach to empty homes. Arson incidents due to anti-social behaviour are very low.

·  Fire stations organising physio sessions for elderly, counselling sessions, community spaces, food banks, clothes and toys for children and coffee mornings.

·  Increase in arson proof letter boxes and fire retardant bedding across the borough for vulnerable people and victims in court cases referred by social services.

·  No reported increase in fires on bonfire nights due to anti-social behaviour but reporting of potential fireworks issues reported to the police by the fire brigade.

The commission then asked questions around the following themes.

·  Perennial issue of fire risk assessments of businesses.

·  Fire safety issues with compartmentation within buildings in Southwark built in the 1800’s.

·  Enforcements in shops with dwellings and issues with lifts, comparison of enforcements between council and private properties.

·  Number of home visits requested and response times.

·  Fire Safety Issues identified by the fire brigade and monitoring progress of such matters.

·  Efforts made to inform residents of action to be taken during a fire such as staying put or leaving the premises.

The commission learned from Verona that fire risk assessments have been a concern for a while and it would be best resolved by further checks and publicising the need for fire risk assessments. Compartmentation within buildings and fire spread issues are relayed to fire safety departments. Shops with dwellings are shops with flats above and if there is no adequate ventilation between the two, mitigation measures are put in place for fats and oils to escape. The turnaround time for homes visits depends on resident availability and booking through telephone calls has a response time of 24-48 hrs. Good amount of requests are received for home visits.

A good partnership exists between the council and the fire brigade to address fire safety issues but are resolved by the council once identified by the fire brigade. High rise buildings are regularly risk assessed and residents are advised accordingly, home safety visits includes any bespoke fire safety advice that are down to differing factors among buildings. General advice is to exit the building if possible, however if residents are not in the place of origin of the fire and can’t leave, the compartmentalisations should safely hold in the event of a fire.

The commission then asked further questions on the following points

·  Advice on electric heaters.

·  Relationship with the council on fire safety issues with contractor work and repairs service.

The commission heard that general fire safety advice should be followed and heaters only be used when present in the property and in open spaces and also avoiding contact with anything other materials. The fire brigade conducts joint visits with the council when fire safety issues with contractor work is reported and if the work is not remedied up to the standards, the fire enforcement team issues a notice. Only repeat fire incidents that flag issues with repairs are further investigated.