Former Barnsley Working Men’s club destroyed in fire
South Yorkshire firefighters were called to a large fire at a disused working men’s club in Barnsley on 13th November.
Crews spent about six hours at the disused club on Farm Road, Kendray, Barnsley, after the blaze was reported at 12.30am. Within 30 minutes of crews arriving, around 50% of the building had collapsed.
Due to the serious structural problems of the building, crews had to tackle the flames from outside the building using combined aerial rescue pump and jets on the ground.
Firefighters from Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Tankersley, Cudworth and Dearne attended the incident.
Crew manager Gavin Jones from Barnsley Fire Station, said: “When we pulled up we could barely see in front of us, or where the club even was, because there was so much thick smoke. Because there were no reports of people trapped or the possibility of people inside we did not enter the building – it was too unsafe. Within half an hour half of it had collapsed.”
The cause of the fire is not yet known and an investigation will now be carried out.
Mother and children escape arson attack at home in Croydon
A mother and her child were rescued by fire crews after petrol was poured through the letterbox of their home and set alight on 11th November.
Firefighters rescued the woman and child from the first floor of the building in Grove Road, Thornton Heath, during the blaze which began at around 10.15pm. Two other children managed to escape from the house before firefighters arrived.
All were treated by paramedics at the scene for smoke inhalation and were then taken to Croydon University Hospital.
A neighbour who witnessed the incident said: “They threw the can around the corner into the garden. Luckily they smelled petrol and were able to call the fire brigade immediately.”
Nigel Baker, Norbury Watch Manager said: “Firefighters worked hard to get both mother and child out quickly. The house was really smoky, and the crews did very well in challenging conditions. It’s very fortunate that no one was more seriously injured.”
Another witness, Ann Hawthorne said: “I heard a lot of noise and saw the fire engines outside the house and a ladder going to the upper floor. Somebody was up there, a fireman who was helping them.”
The cause of the fire is being investigated by the London Fire Brigade and the Met but arson is suspected.
9 people escape Bristol house fire
Fire crews in Bristol were called to a house fire on Lodge Hill in Cossham at around 7am on 17th November.
A woman and two girls were rescued by firefighters from the roof of the property and six others managed to escape from the house before firefighters arrived.
Four ambulances attended the incident and took a baby, four children, two teenagers and two adults to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.
A spokesman for the Avon Fire and Rescue Service said: “At 6.42am crews from Speedwell and Kingswood attended a house fire at Lodge Hill in Cossham. The service was advised that persons were reported missing in the property and on arrival crews found a developed fire on the ground and first floor of a private house with a number of people requiring rescue. In total there were nine people believed to be in the property, most of whom had already escaped. The service did rescue an adult and two children from the flat roof of the property where we believed they had escaped to. Unfortunately in addition, there was a family dog lost in the fire.”
A spokeswoman for the ambulance service said a boy, aged under five-years-old, was the most seriously injured and is being treated for burns.
The others, which includes a baby under 12-months-old, a boy under five, two girls under 10, two teenagers, a woman aged in her 20’s and a man in his 40’s, were taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure but one young boy required specialist care in the burns unit of the hospital.
An investigation into the cause of the fire will be carried out by the fire service and police teams.
Two huge fires broke out in St Albans within 12 hours of each other
Around 10,000 tonnes of recycled wood caught fire at around midnight on Saturday, 10th November and just 12 hours later, wooden pallets containing thousands of plastic trays were alight at Glinwell nursery in Hatfield Road.
Several roads around the recycling centre were closed off and many residents were also without water and electricity.
A spokesman for Affinity Water said: “During peak water demand times, our customers in the area may have no water available to them; however the fire and rescue services are continuing to work with us to reduce their water needs during these peak times. We also understand that some customers are experiencing a drop in pressure and we anticipate these fluctuations in pressure to continue for the duration of the fire.”
Fire crews spent around five days tackling the blaze at the Potters Crouch recycling centre. A St Albans firefighter confirmed that there were four pumps on scene trying to extinguish the fire and they expected it to burn for up to seven days.
This is not the first fire at the recycling depot – four years ago a fire at the site burned for over three months.
Local Councillor Tony Swendell said: “The residents of Potters Crouch have had enough. I believe it should be closed down – it’s detrimental to the environment. Some of the problems that it’s caused are traffic gridlock, loss of power to the locality, as well as loss of water pressure and loss of air quality.”
Ten fire engines attended the fire at the Glinwell Nursery which started just after midday and sent clouds of thick black smoke across the area. Residents were advised to keep their windows shut due to burning plastic on site.
An investigation into the cause of both fires will be carried out.
Manchester landlord fined for breaching fire safety regulations
A Greater Manchester landlord has pleaded guilty to a number of fire safety breaches.
A Fire protection team visited Waseem Abbas’s property on Bury Old Road in Salford which was being used as a mobile phone shop, an internet cafe and a television and radio station in December 2011.
The investigation revealed that there were no fire doors in the building and other exits had been blocked by combustible materials. There were also no fire alarms and a risk assessment had not been carried out.
There was no means of escape for the upper floors of the property other than the staircase leading down to the main shop. This meant that people working on the upper floors would have been trapped in the event of a blaze on the ground floor.
Their escape attempts would have been further hampered by the bars that had been fitted on some of the upstairs windows.
He was fined £3,600 and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.
Peter O’Reilly from Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said: “This case shows that ignorance and failing to think about fire safety can be very costly. The starting point for all businesses should be to do a fire risk assessment which will help them identify how to keep the premises safe.”