Fire investigations UK

Fire Investigations (UK) LLP (FI-UK and FI Global) have just completed their third successful trading year. Our client base continues to grow as insurers, loss adjusters and lawyers recognise our enthusiastic, refreshing approach to providing unbiased, professional expertise in respect of their fire claims. These include domestic and commercial properties, vehicle and marine losses and product liability claims.

The first winner of the Fire Investigations UK Development Award received her prize for the essay competition, improvements in Fire Investigation. The award winner is 19-year-old Victoria Brand of Bridgend College of Further Education.

Victoria was studying for the Level 3 BTEC Award in Forensic Science when FI-UK’s Mike Flanagan treated her and her fellow students to a presentation on fire investigation. It was Mike who initiated the award on behalf of FI-UK (LLP) challenging students to reflect on what they had learned and to explain how they thought fire investigation could be improved. Victoria’s entry was the winning submission according to Mike, for “…it’s engaging and interesting style and content.”

Victoria’s award is the first in the UK for FI-UK and it is hoped to repeat the success of the award next year. FI-UK Partner, Peter Mansi said “This type of award is designed to encourage and attract young people to pursue a career in fire investigation and allied forensic disciplines, based on knowledge and understanding, and not by the glamorous images portrayed by the TV. Victoria is a worthy winner of our first award of this kind.”

Victoria received £50 worth of book tokens to support her continued studies in fire scene investigation

Honda has recalled nearly one in three of its Swindon-made CR-V sports utility car in Britain because of a fault which could lead to the driver’s door catching fire.

Around 100 homes have been evacuated after a fire in a factory complex triggered a gas explosion.
The blaze broke out at the industrial site in the Radcliffe area of Greater Manchester at around 9.45 pm on Thursday.
Around 50 firefighters were called to the scene on Schofield Street as the flames spread across a number of units.
A gas mains pipe in one of the properties then exploded forcing emergency workers to evacuate nearby properties as a precaution, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said.
There are no reports of any injuries and nobody was believed to be inside the building, which is thought to belong to a freight company when the fire broke out.

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West Yorkshire has smashed the ambitious district-based targets it set itself for reducing fires and other emergencies.
The number of turnouts in 2011/12 were:

• Leeds 10,593 (3 per cent better than target)
• Bradford 7,951 (2.1 per cent btt)
• Kirklees 4,914 (8.8 per cent btt)
• Wakefield 4,093 (4.8 per cent btt)
• Calderdale 2,541 (2 per cent btt)

All districts recorded a fall in arson and there was a general pattern of fewer house fires and fire deaths and injuries. Well over 45,000 free home fire safety checks were carried out.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Craig McIntosh explained that 2011/12 had been the first year that districts had been given risk reduction targets in an attempt to tailor work to local circumstances. This approach was reflected in individual station targets. “Obviously, what may be high risk in Bradford may not be mirrored in Huddersfield or Wetherby so we wanted to focus our activity on what would make a difference locally. I’m glad to say that overall this seems to be working and much more effective working relationships are already being formed on the ground with other agencies such as neighbourhood policing teams and councils. “Achievements across all five districts in reducing risk has had an impact on the service’s headline performance: fewer fires result in fewer casualties and pleasingly 2011/12 saw the lowest number ever of five accidental domestic fire deaths. This is five more than we would like as each represents a tragedy, but we are delivering lower numbers year on year and this demonstrates that our risk reduction work is making the people of West Yorkshire safer.” Mr. McIntosh said that the targets would be refreshed every year to make sure they were still relevant and stretching.

A small block of flats in Southampton had to be evacuated when a fire broke out in the roof space.

Emergency crews were called to the four-storey building in Ordnance Road, off London Road, just after 07:00 BST.

No-one was injured and about 20 residents were given shelter in a nearby pub, which was specially opened.

The fire was quickly brought under control and crews spent time damping down. The cause is not yet known but an investigation is under way.

The blaze caused water damage to a number of flats and extensive damage to the roof.

The road, which is a dead end, was closed.

In June, when a fire ripped through a concrete tower block in Bermondsey, a low-income neighbourhood in south-east London, residents initially blamed it on a lightning strike. “It was only later we heard the truth on the television,” said Kathy Pullady, who lives across a chipped tile-covered landing from the 17th-floor flat where the blaze took hold.

The London Fire Brigade had in fact been investigating the probable cause of the fire for years. In July it publicly pointed to a faulty fridge-freezer made by Turkish company Arcelik, Europe’s third-largest appliance manufacturer. The fire brigade says timers in certain models of Arcelik fridges have caused at least 20 fires in the UK since 2006. One man has been killed and at least 15 people injured.

Since 2005, the European Commission has recorded fire safety warnings for 37 fridge-freezer models. Sixteen of those models were made by Arcelik under the Beko brand, 18 by Swedish-based Dometic (including some fridge-freezer-oven combinations used in mobile homes), and three by South Korea-based Samsung.

Fire chiefs told Reuters they took the unusual step of issuing a public statement about the Arcelik appliances because the company itself had failed to publicise the danger. Consumer groups also charge the company — along with British regulators — with dragging its feet when it came to warning customers.

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A project to set up nine regional control centres for fire and rescue services in England was a “complete failure” and wasted £469m, MPs say.

The public accounts committee said the Fire control scheme had not achieved any of its objectives and that eight of the centres were empty “white elephants”.

The plan to replace 46 smaller control rooms was scrapped in December 2010.

Fire Minister Bob Neill said Labour must be held accountable for the “comprehensive failure”.

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the MPs’ committee, said the project had been “flawed from the outset” and one of the worst wastes of public money for many years.

“The taxpayer has lost nearly half a billion pounds and eight of the completed regional control centres remain as empty and costly white elephants.”

She said the project – launched in 2004 by the Labour government – had been terminated in 2010 “with none of the original objectives achieved and a minimum of £469m being wasted”.

Link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14974552

A man killed in a house fire that left a woman and her three children critically injured may have set himself alight, police said on Tuesday, as the Independent Police Complaints Commission was brought in to investigate.

David Potts, 39, was found with serious burns during a blaze at Barlow Road, Broadheath, Altrincham, in the early hours of Monday morning. He died later in hospital. Police said they were investigating the possibility that he set fire to himself.

The matter was voluntarily referred to the IPCC, as officers had previously had some contact with the family.

Tracy Jones, 40, and her two sons, Zak, four, and Shaun, 15, and her 18-year-old daughter, Cailin, remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Jones and her older children managed to escape the house before the arrival of firefighters, who broke down the front door and rescued Zak from an upstairs bedroom. They found Potts badly burned and unconscious in the downstairs lounge. He was taken to hospital, where he died.

Officers from Greater Manchester police’s professional standards unit have launched an internal investigation.

The IPCC said: “We have been advised by Greater Manchester police that we will be receiving a referral from them in connection to this incident. Once we receive the referral we will assess the evidence to determine our level of involvement.”

Chief Superintendent Mark Roberts, divisional commander for Trafford, said: “A dedicated team of detectives is working closely with the fire service to establish how this fire started. There is speculation in the media that David [went] to the house and started the fire. While this is clearly a line of inquiry we are investigating, until we have established the exact circumstances surrounding the fire, it would not be appropriate for us to speculate further. However, at this time, we are not looking for anyone further in relation to this incident.

“This is an extremely serious and tragic case, which has left one person dead and four others critically injured. Our thoughts are with the families of all of those involved.

“We are asking for people in the local community to come forward and speak to police if they have any information that may help us with our investigation.”

Denise Moulson, a neighbour, told the Manchester Evening News there had been shouting before the blaze. “My neighbour said there was a lot of arguing, screaming and then the kitchen window blew out. She said she heard Tracy say: ‘Stop it Dave, just go now’. Other neighbours heard them screaming, ‘Help, I am on fire!’

“It is so sad. They are a lovely family, very quiet, always said hello. We saw Tracy, Sean and Cailin on the grass at the front of the house, they were in shock and a lot of pain.”

Jones, who regularly attended King’s Way church, in Sale, had moved back to the UK from South Africa.