Manchester Flat Fire Sprinkler Save

Summary

17 July 2025, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) reported a fire in a purpose-built residential block of flats. The retrofitted life safety residential sprinkler system was activated and successfully extinguished a fire involving upholstered furniture. No injuries were reported.

A sprinkler save is categorised as an event where one or more sprinkler heads have activated and contained, controlled, or, in some cases, extinguished a building fire. This incident provides further evidence of the effectiveness, benefits of sprinklers as part of a comprehensive fire safety strategy for a building.

Providing further weight to the reliability and effectiveness of sprinkler systems following the report conducted by ¹Optimal Economics and commissioned by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), National Fire Sprinkler Network into the performance, reliability, and effectiveness of sprinkler systems in controlling and extinguishing fires.

Revealed that across all premises types: –

• Sprinklers are 99% efficient in extinguishing or controlling a fire.
• Sprinklers are 94% efficient in their ability to operate.

The ⁴Guinness Partnership, one of England’s largest providers of affordable housing, has demonstrated its commitment to enhanced fire safety by pledging to retrofit residential sprinklers in all buildings exceeding 18 metres in height, following the Grenfell tragedy. Such a commitment is vital; without it, the outcomes of similar incidents within their property portfolio could be significantly different.

The British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association (BAFSA) welcomed the government’s decision on November 2020 to lower the height threshold for mandatory sprinklers in purpose group 1a (residential blocks of flats) from 30 metres to 11 metres. Nevertheless, concerns persist regarding the lack of requirements to retrofit existing residential buildings with sprinklers. In alignment with the ²NFCC AWSS position statement, we advocate for government action to mandate the retrofitting of sprinklers in high-rise residential buildings. Retrofitting should apply to all existing residential buildings over 18 metres in height, or those with at least seven storeys served by a single staircase, as well as all existing residential buildings exceeding 11 metres, based on risk assessments.

The incident

• Fire crews responded to a reported fire within a 15-storey building.
• Following the completion of a dynamic risk assessment by the incident commander.
• It was established that the fire involved a flat on the eleventh floor.
• Firefighters were committed to extinguish the fire who established upon entry that the fire had been contained, controlled and extinguished within the room of origin by the activation of 1 sprinkler head.
• Up to 5sqm fire damage was reported for within the room of origin.
• The cause of the fire, careless disposal of smoking materials.
• No injuries were reported.

The benefits sprinklers

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 15 storeys. 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 GMFRS
• Preventing a potential major protracted incident that could challenge FRS maintaining a business-as-usual routine service.

Conclusion

This incident provides further evidence on the benefits of retrofitting a life safety residential sprinkler system in high rise residential buildings supporting the calls from the NFCC and the fire sector urging government to introduce further regulations for the installation of retrofitting sprinklers in the built environment.

When comparing this incident to a similar ³high-rise building fire in Salford in December 2022, where sprinklers were not installed, the outcomes were markedly different. The GMFRS press release regarding the Salford incident highlights the significant impact that the absence of a life safety residential sprinkler system can have on the building, residents.

Sources/further reading

• Sprinkler Saves Review 2024/2025
• Sprinkler Saves Summer Update No 8
• ¹Optimal economics report Efficiency and Effectiveness of sprinkler systems in the Uk: An analysis from fire service data
• ²NFCC Sprinkler position statement
• ³Salford high rise building fire December 2022 (GMFRS press release)
• ⁴Inside housing, The Guiness partnership revels progress on sprinkler retrofits
• GMFRS Benefits of sprinklers

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.