Fire Wardens for Student Accommodation blocks?

Should all Student Housing blocks have Fire Wardens?

The recent fire at Boltons ‘Cube’ Student block has raised many questions about blocks of accommodation. One of them should be:

With the saving of lives, by the quick action of the Student Fire Wardens in the block – should it be a requirement for all Student accommodation to have Fire Wardens? 

Many students did not immediately evacuate on hearing the alarm. Stating that the fire sounder was always going off, which negates it effectiveness.

For minimal cost, it makes sense to have several trained Students who will be on site to make sure any genuine alarms are acted on. The quicker students evacuate a building helps to lower the risk to life. It also aids the Fire Service when attending too.

Safety first

Fire authorities, fire safety bodies and governments are still discussing fire safety in buildings for the future. However should it be a consideration in the short term at least, to have trained Fire Wardens onsite? This would be quick to implement without being too costly and as illustrated in Bolton, could actually save lives.

Learning from others

Nobody knows everything, as Helen Hayes is attributed to saying – ‘The expert in anything was once a beginner’. It is good to recognise that we are always learning. If we take and use others experiences, we can only get better. At Fire risk assessments, we always question what we do and can we improve. Fire safety does change and so should your Fire risk assessments.