Fire safety

Your safety is our priority and we’re committed to helping you stay safe from fire in your home. As the owner of your building we have a responsibility to make sure that the building meets fire and safety requirements.

What to do if there's a fire?

How should you report a fire?

• In a fire, keep calm and act quickly.
• If you have a pendant alarm, press the pendant button to call for help.
• If help is not immediately provided, call 999 and give an exact address.

What should you do if there's a fire?

• Follow the instructions displayed on your nearest 'fire action notice'.
• Fire action notices are normally displayed on the wall at the front and rear exits of your building.
• Take some time now to locate your nearest fire action notice.
• Check you understand it and know what to do.
• Tell us if you might have problems following or understanding these instructions.
• Tell us if your notice is missing, damaged or defaced.

What we do as a landlord

Every customer’s home is fitted with smoke and heat detectors. Most of these are powered by mains electricity, with a battery back-up. All detectors are checked during your annual home safety check.

Our fire safety team carries out monthly checks in all of our blocks.

These checks include:

• Weekly fire alarm tests in blocks of flats that are fitted with a communal alarm.
• Making sure that escape routes and communal areas are kept clear.
• Monthly emergency lighting test in all blocks of flats.
• Monthly testing of the automatic vents that open to allow smoke, heat, and harmful gases to escape if there’s a fire.
• Monthly visual checks of the dry-riser.
• Visual checks of communal fire doors and the communal side of flat doors. Flat doors are checked annually as part of the home safety checks.
• Four times a year we a more extensive check of all communal doors in blocks over 11 metres.
• Visual checks of electronic door entry systems and main entry door locks.
• Checking that the external routes and paths are safe underfoot.
• Looking for obvious communal holes or breeches in wall that are not fire stopped,
• Checking that there are no signs that the communal electrics have been tampered with, and that there’s no indications of illegal use of communal power.
• Checking the communal lighting is working.
• Making sure that service cupboards and riser cupboards are locked and free from items.
• Making sure that all escape doors leading to the outside will open fully in case of emergency.
• Checking that all fire signage, including the emergency evacuation procedure, is correct and in good repair.

Every year we send a fire safety mailing to all customers living in our high rise blocks, with information about what do to if there’s a fire and advice on keeping homes and communal areas safe from fire.

We ask all customers in our high rise blocks to let us know if they think they’ll have difficulty getting out if there’s a fire so that we can carry out a Person Centred Fire Risk Assessment (PCFRA) and create a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP), which can be shared with the fire service.

We offer a PCFRA and PEEP to all customers in our supported and sheltered homes.

We work closely with Avon Fire and Rescue Service to offer free home safety checks to customers. The fire service also regularly uses our properties for training.

What you can do to help

To help you stay safe from fire in your home, we’ve put together some tips and advice, that could help save your life.

If you live in a block of flats, please also...

• Familiarise yourself with the evacuation procedure for your building - a copy will be just inside the main entrance of your block.
• Call us on 01225 366000 if you’re unsure about the procedure for your building.
• Also tell us if you or anyone in your building might need help evacuating safety.

Please help to keep your shared areas safe by not leaving anything in these areas. Staircases and corridors are the routes for fire fighters to get in as well as for you and your neighbours to get out. Items (like those pictured below) that are left in stairwells or corridors could fuel a fire or become serious obstacles, especially if the area is smoke-filled or dark.

Fire Risk Assessments

A fire risk assessment is an inspection carried out at a block of flats to assess the risk from fire. This is carried out by a qualified professional employed by Curo. The assessment includes recommended actions for Curo to complete to improve your safety. Some of this work will be completed as soon as possible. Other work may be completed as part of a maintenance programme. If you live in a block of flats owned by Curo and want to see your fire risk assessment, please email firesafetyteam@curo-group.co.uk

You can also email firesafetyteam@curo-group.co.uk if you have any fire safety questions, you need the risk assessment in a different format or you would like to ask about any other fire safety related tests that are carried out.

Reporting a safety concern

If you have any concerns about building safety, particularly structural or fire safety issues, please email firesafetyteam@curo-group.co.uk

Free home fire safety check

Why not invest in your safety by getting a free home check from your local fire and rescue service? They will give you life-saving advice, look for possible fire risks in your home, check your smoke alarms and help you plan escape routes in case the worst ever happens.

You can find out more about fire safety visits by contacting your local fire and rescue service. The contact details are below:

Avon

including Bristol, B&NES, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire

Visit their website for more information by following this link.

Call them on 0117 926 2061

Devon and Somerset

Visit their website for more information by following this link.

Call them on 01392 872200

Gloucestershire

Visit their website for more information by following this link.

Call them on 01452 753333 

Wiltshire

Visit their website for more information by following this link. 

Call them on 01380 723601