Fire safety failures found in over half of London care homes 'only tip of iceberg'

London Fire Brigade is calling on care homes to urgently review their emergency staff training and check staff know how to safely evacuate residents, after finding serious fire safety failures in over half of care homes in London.

A total of 177 care homes were inspected across the capital to gauge the level of fire risk. In their findings, inspectors found 29 per cent had failures relating to fire doors within their premises, 10 per cent had inadequate training for staff and managers and 14 per cent had evidence of poor emergency planning, or a potential lack of staff to implement the plan.

The Brigade's assistant commissioner Dan Daly said: “Over half the care homes we inspected had to make improvements to their fire safety arrangements despite them housing some of London’s most vulnerable residents.

“My main concern is that this audit is only the tip of the iceberg. Care home owners need to urgently review their fire risk assessments and ensure their staff know how to safely evacuate their residents, especially those who are immobile.”

London Fire Brigade has written to every care home in the capital calling on them to urgently review their fire risk assessments, emergency plans and staff training.

In 2017, two people died in a Cheshunt care home after a fire engulfed the entire building. Crews from Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue and London Fire Brigade rescued 33 residents, many of whom were too frail to move themselves to safety.

Debbie Ivanova, Care Quality Commission’s (CQC’s) deputy chief inspector of adult social care for the London region, said: “It’s the responsibility of those in charge of running care homes to ensure the right fire protection measures are in place in order to keep people safe.

“We know that good care home providers invest in proper and regular fire training for their staff, ensure that emergency plans are kept up-to-date and carry out frequent checks of premises and equipment. But as the London Fire Brigade’s findings make clear, good fire safety isn’t the norm everywhere.”

Forty-five per cent of fires in residential homes are caused by cooking and cookers, 15 per cent by kitchen appliances and 12 per cent are smoking-related, according to the London Fire Brigade website.

Ms Ivanova called for all care home providers “to make full use of these findings so they can make continual improvements that will help keep everyone safe”.