Ninth floor balcony destroyed as London Fire Brigade tackle blaze at flat in Bow, London
The use of combustible materials within balconies is fortunately seeing the tides turn towards non-combustible alternatives. Thousands of buildings across the UK & Ireland possess balconies, making the remediation process no easy feat. AliDeck actively seek to raise awareness and educate those within the industry while also supplying the latest solutions as we push for a fire-safe future.
AliDeck released our annual Balcony Fires Report for 2021-2022 which underlined the shocking data that a 46% increase was seen in comparison to the previous year. Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) we made requests to Fire Services across the UK with London presenting particularly alarming results.
This recent Balcony Fire in London only further highlights the severity of the issue faced by thousands of leaseholders across the United Kingdom every day. On average, London Fire Brigade respond to 2 incidents per week that are related to smoking related causes on balconies these incidents put hundreds of lives and tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage at risk.
Although no cause has yet been determined the balcony was totally destroyed. 25 Firefighters attended the scene from a number of fire crews located at nearby stations in the city. Resources are therefore stretched thin in these four regions should another emergency occur.
A man, woman, and child were all treated at the scene and we are fortunate that this was the extent of the harm outside of the physical damage to the balcony and part of the flat. While the cause of the fire remains under investigation, it is important that we emphasise the significance of making sure that we act with caution when using our balconies.
Cost-effective and futureproof solutions are available off the shelf with AliDeck with our range of aluminium decking and balcony components rapidly becoming the de facto standard for many architects, specifiers, steel fabricators, and balcony manufacturers in recent years. The time to take action is now, with many conscientious building owners and property managers already taking the proactive decision to go fire-safe.
If you would like to discuss the remediation of combustible materials on the balconies for your building, please contact us on 01622 235 672 or email us at info@alideck.co.uk.
