Carer saves residents from fire in care home written by
Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue 1487693507
on the 21
st February 2017 at 16:11
- Posted in Fire Blog
Residents at a care home in Newcastle are safe and well thanks to the quick actions of carer Susie Jardine.
Susie discovered a fire at Westwood Lodge Care Home on Bentinck Road at around 7.30pm on Tuesday 24 January.
Susie said: “When I entered the toilets on the first floor, I discovered smoke coming from a bin. I was shocked, but thankfully I remembered my training and raised the alarm immediately by hitting the red manual call point. I alerted my colleagues who called 999 and evacuated residents to a safe area. I returned to the toilet and put the fire out with an extinguisher. I am so grateful I had the fire safety training.”
Susie managed to extinguish the fire completely just before four fire appliances from Newcastle and Gateshead attended the three-storey care home. Firefighters remained on site to ventilate the property to enable the care home to stay open.
Care home manager Lynne Burnett said: “We take the safety of our residents and staff very seriously and pride ourselves on having a very robust fire safety training programme. We also test our alarm system every week, which meant that it worked when we really needed it. Susie did an amazing job by raising the alarm and extinguishing the fire quickly. The consequences could have been far more serious had we not taken fire safety training seriously.”
Group Manager Phil Clark, Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, said: “This incident highlights how critical fire safety training is. Every employer has a legal obligation to provide suitable and sufficient fire safety training and a well rehearsed evacuation plan to safeguard staff and others on their premises. Susie did exactly what she was trained to do and prevented the fire from spreading to other areas of the property.”
If you are an employer or an employee and would like more information about fire safety training or business fire safety, go to www.twfire.gov.uk/business
