Council pledges to better explain fire safety policy, after fatal Bristol blaze
Mayor Marvin Rees says he will be more proactive in explaining safety measures after concerns around the alarm system at Twinnell House
The Mayor of Bristol has told us he and his team are going to get more proactive at explaining fire safety policy, after a fatal blaze in a tower block led to concerns around the alarm system.
The fire broke out on the top floor at Twinnell House in Easton on Sunday, September 25.
In the immediate aftermath many residents suggested that the alarm system had not worked because the alarm in their flat did not sound, but as the Fire Service explained last week, Marvin Rees told us that is actually normal.
"It sounds like a common sense thing to do (to have interconnected alarms), but it's not actually the safe thing to do," Marvin told us.
"It would mean that every time an alarm went off, everyone's alarm would go off, burnt toast or anything.
"The building would be evacuated probably twice a day.
"That would not only be inconvenient, but probably unsafe because at some point people would start ignoring the fire alarm."
Instead, Marvin explained, the system is designed to avoid everyone evacuating at once and making access difficult for the Fire Service.
"The alarms go off that need to go off," he said.
"If everyone evacuated the building at the same time, the Fire Service would not be able to get access to the building because they'd be competing for stair space with the residents.
"Having said that, one of the first questions any fire officer asks and answers when they get to a fire in one of those blocks is 'do I need to evacuate the building?'
"So while there is a stay put policy, the first thing to do is to assess whether the stay put policy is appropriate in that particular incident."
We asked Marvin if he considers it an issue that residents in the block did not know the fire safety policy in their own homes.
"Yeah I do actually," he said.
"That was one of the things that came out through the community meeting.
"We all agreed that we need to be much more proactive in sharing with residents how the building should work."
Alongside several members of the Fire Service, Marvin visited Twinnell House on Thursday last week (September 29) to hear residents' concerns and reassure them the building is safe.
"What also came out was that residents weren't aware of the full suite of fire safety interventions that were in place in the building," Marvin added.
"It is one of the commitments we made that during the annual fire assessment for every building, we should make sure we let the residents know that actually, another fire assessment has just taken place, these are the findings of that fire assessment, so they know they're in constant review.
"It doesn't happen just once and then we all walk away.
"It's happening all the time."
Bristol media caused "anxiety" with false reporting?
During our interview the Mayor suggested Bristol's media outlets had added to confusion around the alarm system by reporting concerns that it had not worked.
"The Fire Service were clear that the fire alarms worked as they are supposed to work, on day one," he said.
"So I am a little bit confused as to why that story was carried in the media all week, because that causes anxiety among our residents.
"As has been made clear, the building worked in the way it should work.
"Taking the loss of life, which is that incredibly sad element of this, but essentially what happened here is a fire broke out in a block of flats, it did not spread around the cladding which we know was safe, because of the way the building was designed the fire was contained in that flat, and it didn't spread and the building worked in exactly the way the building was supposed to work."
He told us that could have been made clear "within hours" of the fire.
"I'm happy to explain that, but it shouldn't just be down to me to bring that truth to the population of Bristol," he said.
"That could have been done through the media and it could have been done through a very early conversation with the Fire Service, saving so many people in our city unnecessary anxiety."
Having checked the reports put out by Bristol's main media outlets, many if not all did run comments from residents on the day of the fire, suggesting the alarm system had failed.
Some, including ourselves, continued to report on residents' fears later in the week, however, in each case it was also highlighted that the Fire Service said the alarms worked as expected.