Bedfordshire Tall Building Bedroom Fire Saved By Retrofitted Sprinkler System

Image credit BM Sprinklers/Triangle

Group Commander Mark Garrett, responsible for fire safety at Bedfordshire Fire & Rescue Service (BFRS), said: “This incident shows exactly how sprinklers save lives. The system worked perfectly, stopping the fire before it could spread. Our partnership with bpha helps keep residents safe.

Summary

BFRS have reported that on Wednesday 4 June at 10:33pm fire crews were mobilised to a dwelling bedroom fire within a residential purpose-built block of flats, caused by a lit cigarette extinguished by the operation of the premises’ retrofitted residential sprinkler system.

A sprinkler activation is categorised as an event where one or more sprinkler heads have activated and contained, controlled, or, in some cases, extinguished a building fire. Each of these incidents provides evidence of the effectiveness of sprinklers as part of a comprehensive fire safety strategy.

For this reported fire, the benefits of retrofitting a residential sprinkler system within the dwellings of a single staircase purpose-built block of flats of 12 floors. The outcome of which

• Restricted the fire’s growth, containing and controlling the fire to the room of origin.
• Extinguished the fire before the arrival of BFRS.
• Preventing a potential major protracted incident that could strain the operational resilience of BFRS resources and challenge maintaining routine services.

The Incident

On arrival the incident commander established that a bedroom fire caused by a lit cigarette had been contained, controlled and extinguished following the activation of 1 sidewall sprinkler head before the arrival of BFRS. No injuries were reported, the resident self-evacuated the flat following the actuation of the domestic smoke detector

Image credit BM Sprinklers/Triangle

Image 1                                                           Image 2

Image 1, Activated sidewall sprinkler head, located 3m from the seat of the fire which contained, controlled and extinguished the fire.

Image 2, Identifies that the seat of the fire was in the vicinity below the head rest involving bed linen/textiles with smoke staining visible on the wall from the plume of the fire.

Onsite information allowed firefighters to interact with the building sprinkler system allowing the system to be isolated at the conclusion of the incident. Minor water escape was reported affecting adjacent properties which was dealt with by bpha contractors in a timely manner.

bpha should be recognised for their fire safety review within their residential high-rise building portfolio allowing the retrofitting of sprinklers on a case-by-case basis.

Legislation

The outcome of this incident could have been so much different if sprinklers had not been fitted. Providing further evidence supporting calls from the ¹National Fire Chiefs Council urging the government to introduce regulations mandating sprinklers in England and specifically to mandate the retrofitting of sprinklers in all existing residential buildings over 11 metres in height based on risk assessments. Currently, there is no statutory legislation for the retrofitting of sprinklers within residential tall buildings.

This incident demonstrates the benefits of installing and retrofitting sprinklers in such buildings, showing that a properly designed and installed sprinkler system to BS9251:21 can detect, raise the alarm, and control or extinguish a fire at an early stage.

The provision of a sprinkler system does not eliminate the need for other fire safety measures, especially for individuals at higher-than-average risk from fire and those unable to self-evacuate in the event of a fire.

Sources/further reading. 

• Sprinkler Saves Review 2024/25
• Sprinkler Saves Spring Update No 8
• ¹NFCC Sprinkler Position Statement
• Bedfordshire Fire & Rescue Service

If you want to make a difference working in the fire sector, we need your assistance……

To make sprinklers the norm and not the exception – we need the evidence. Encouraging FRS and those in the sprinkler community to promote, collate, report sprinkler activations to Sprinkler Saves UK which will help to create a central and comprehensive record of fire incidents where sprinklers played their role in containing/controlling or extinguishing the fire.

If you hear of a save report it using this link.