Fire Station Without Smoke Alarm Burns Down

A fire station in Norfolk burnt down in a fire: and it was later revealed that there was no fire alarm or sprinkler system on the site.

The fire at Downham Market fire station started in the bay where its fire engine was housed, with the alarm being raised by nearby Police officers. Crews from other areas were called the tackle the flames: fortunately no-one was inside the station at the time and there were no injuries.

Norfolk's deputy chief fire officer Roy Harold commented "Normally we go to other people's fires, but tonight we had to go to our own. I think there is a fire safety message there for us. This building's relatively new, but it wasn't sprinklered. If it'd been fitted with sprinklers, we wouldn't be here today chatting about this because the fire would've been put out very, very quickly automatically. We now ask all new building developments to consider sprinklers very strongly."

New equipment and a new fire engine has already been sent to the town, so they retain their cover, but the total bill could rise to around £1.75m.

A smoke alarm costs around £5.

[via BBC]

(Images: Shutterstock)