Water cooler fire causes major disruption at UK Border Agency Office

Firefighters from Croydon were called to a fire at the UK Border Agency building, Lunar House on 19th January.

Firefighters found that the fire was coming from a water cooler. One firefighter said: “The water cooler had ignited, it may have been left on or dried out. There was not much damage done and the fire was extinguished quickly.”

The UK Border Agency confirmed that the public enquiry office was unable to deal with applications due to the fire.

A statement from The UK Border Agency said: “There has been a fire at Croydon public enquiry office which has impacted their ability to accept payments. This means that the public enquiry office is unable to deal with any customers who have who have booked the premium appointment service for today (January 20, 2012). All customers affected are advised to re-book their appointments. Postal application customers are unaffected and this service will continue as normal.”

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that you:

‘must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed’

This means that all companies as a first point in their Fire Safety must complete a Fire Risk Assessment.  This must be carried out by a competent person, who is trained to perform risk assessments.