Jackson Fire and Security shares fire safety advice for care homes

Citing an inquest into an April 2017 fire at Newgrange Care Home, Hertfordshire, the fire security franchise explained the lessons that could be learned from the blaze/the surrounding circumstances.

Jackson Fire explained that the Newgrange fire “was caused by an electrical fault in a wire”. The fire quickly spread into the roof and then through the care home, causing the deaths of two residents - Ivy Spriggs and Daphne Holloway. A buzzer was triggered but there was “confusion about the fire alarm system and the sound it was making”, so action wasn’t taken until the fire had already taken hold. The company running the care home admitted to “five charges of failing to comply with fire safety legislation and was fined £175,000”.

However, “It was actually accepted by the judge that prior to this incident the company did have a good record in health and safety. It had put fire safety measures in place. And this is something that should make care home management teams pause for thought. Because they too might genuinely believe their care home fire safety measures are sufficiently robust.” The lessons the security franchise suggested could be taken away from this case, for care home owners and managers, were as follows:

• Review evacuation procedures and ensure a policy “consistent with well-established guidance on the safe evacuation of care homes” is in place
• Consider the use of fire suppression (in an instance like the above, a fire suppression system like sprinklers could have been life-saving)
• Make sure all staff understand the fire alarm system, including the different warning/alert sounds and the fire alarm panel
• Review the building’s fire resilience (in the above situation, ineffective compartmentation of the home and incorrectly located fire curtains worsened things)
• Reach out to a professional (like Jackson Fire and Security) for assistance to ensure your care home is truly fire safe

You can become a franchisee with this informed provider of essential fire and security services for a minimum initial investment of £39,500, with a total investment cost of £69,500. Find out more about starting your franchising journey with Jackson Fire and Security via the company’s profile page, which you’ll discover linked above.