Electric issue sparks fire in family home

Posted: February 15, 2016

Posted in: Workplace Injuries 

Southampton City Council has moved a family to emergency accommodation following a fire that took place in their ninth floor flat in Graham Street, in St Mary’s, on Saturday at 8pm. The fire started in an electrical fuse box at the premises and it took fire fighters an hour to get the blaze under control. The fire took the efforts of crews from three stations to extinguish.

It has been revealed that wiring changes, which had been recommended following the death of two firefighters in April 2010, had not been implemented in the building. Keith Wiseman, coroner who investigated the deaths of James Sears and Alan Bannon, the firefighters who died in April 2010 when attending the breakout at Shirley Towers, Southampton, recommended that electrical cables should be mounted in metal trunking instead of plastic. 

“I wonder if the council are that interested in firefighter safety”

The two firefighters became entangled in electrical cables that fell from the ceiling as they were attempting to fight the fire at Shirley Towers in Southampton in April of 2010. In a joint statement after the event, both the Southampton City Council and the Hampshire Fire and Rescue acknowledged that cables had fallen from the ceiling.

Secretary of the Hampshire Fire Brigades Union, Gary Jackson, stated: “I wonder if the council are that interested in firefighter safety or whether budget constraints mean that they haven’t got the money they need”.

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