Sheltered Extra Care Housing Fire

[jugglingmum]

I have been away so apologies if this has already been posted or if this is in wrong forum.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49289632

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49351760

The fire seems to have ripped through the complex very quickly and thankfully the fire service changed the stayput policy very quickly. If this had happened at night I suspect there might have been a different outcome.

The building my mum is in is near identical to this one(one of 5 in Cheshire), I was reassured that a stay put policy would be best for mum, but now I don't know. Not sure what questions to ask as to why/how fire spread, but guess I need to.

 

[Moggymad]

Thanks for posting about this. I don't remember hearing about it on the news. It looked horrendous, thank goodness there were no casualties but what a sad situation it is for them.
I have been at mums carehome twice when the fire alarms have gone off (not a test) Both times mum was in her wheelchair in her room with me & I took her outside to get away from the noise as much as anything else. No-one else came out so I am wondering if they also have a stay put policy. As it turned out both times someone upstairs had deliberately broken the glass on the alarm & set it off however I was impressed with the system in place that automatically shut all internal doors & unlocked all external doors. As mums room was right next to the fire exit I just went out with her but I could see the carers standing next to the unlocked doors in the lounge preventing residents (all with dementia) from taking the opportunity to leave. It's a bit worrying as mum has to be hoisted so I will ask what the policy is next time I'm there.

 

[nae sporran]

I read about that last week, and thought it was close to you Jugglingmum. It was good to see everyone got out safely, though two years after Grenfell it is a worry we don't need. They have fire doors in our supported housing which are supposed to protect us for 30 minutes, though in summer I often keep the bedroom door and a back window open. They have a stay put policy here too.

 

[jugglingmum]

You are right @nae sporran that it is close to me, although other side of the county about 40 miles away.

The complex above - looks the same build to my mum's from the photos - my mum's is the same housing association etc and there are (well were) 5 of them all within the same group - so I am a bit worried now what would happen if there was a fire.

My mum has all the internal doors in her flat open, but the 'front door' is meant to be a one hour fire door I think.

On one occasion when I visited her a smoke alarm had gone off in a flat, and as I turned into her road, I was following 3 fire engines down the road. The fire was contained to the kitchen of the flat, and I was told was just smoke. The staff all carried on as normal, saying that they expected the fire service to tell them if they needed to evacuate. I assumed it was caused by a resident with dementia. I'm guessing there were many with dementia in Beechmere. I suppose there is not much I can do in reality but I will be asking questions about the policy of stay put. Given the 5 (well now 4) are managed as a group I guess that they will be reviewing procedures and policies in the light of this.

 

[Spamar]

I’m pretty sure I read that the fire chief ordered evacuation of the building, thereby saving everybody’s life ( looking at the remains of the building!)

 

[Helly68]

This is very telling.
There was a fire drill the other day at my Mum's CH and there did seem to be some confusion among the usually excellent staff as to whether they should stay put or evacuate. It sounds as though the complex in the news story also had some design flaws. Very worrying.