South Devon housing association protects tenants with fire safety training

A housing association in Teignbridge has partnered with the local fire service to undergo fire safety training, in order to protect the residents of their buildings.

As part of a pioneering new scheme, staff at Teign Housing have now been given the skills to conduct at least a basic fire risk assessment of tenants’ homes. This will allow them to recommend that safety measures such as fitting fire alarms and planning escape routes be taken by residents.

Teign Housing made the decision to get involved in the scheme after two children were killed in a fire in Torquay, in a property without fire alarms fitted. The residence was managed by Riviera Housing Trust, who later revealed that 25 per cent of their properties were not fitted with fire alarms.

Teign Housing, who has always placed a great importance on smoke alarms, is the first housing association to take part in such a partnership scheme. The CEO of the company, Mike Hanrahan, explained his motivations for getting involved, saying:

“Prevention is always better than cure.

“Fire safety has always been a priority for us, and all of our properties have hard wired smoke alarms fitted as standard.

“But after a number of fatal fires, both locally and nationally, it made us think about what else we could do to prevent a tragedy like this.”