While your landlord and block manager have a duty to take steps to prevent fires and protect escape routes in your apartment block, residents can – and should – play their part, too.
Here’s advice from the national Fire Kills campaign on what you can do to help prevent fires:
- Don’t obstruct the communal areas, stairs, corridors and landings - these often form the fire escape routes for the building. If you see anything in the communal areas that doesn’t belong there, check who it belongs to or tell your block manager
- Don’t prop open fire doors in communal areas
- Don’t store anything that might catch fire or burn in cupboards that have electrical equipment (especially items such as consumer units/fuse boards) unless they have been specifically designed for safe storage
- Report any damage to the building structure that could compromise fire safety (such as damage to fire doors) to your block manager
- There may be facilities in the common areas that are installed to help fire and rescue services in an emergency. These include wet and dry risers (systems of valves and pipes that ensure the fire service can get water to the upper floors of a building), opening vents and evacuation alert systems. These facilities must protected to prevent unauthorised access
- Before doing any DIY, check with your block manager that it won’t affect any of the fire safety features in your flat
Want to check your flat for possible fire risks? Take a look at this easy-to-follow online home fire safety check.
