Fire safety advice for students in university accommodation

Cheap mobile and laptop charging leads

I know money is tight, especially after Christmas and student accommodation fees being paid. But if you do have to buy a new phone or laptop charger, opt for quality.

Why?

Well let me set the scene, you've slept late and had to rush out the door this morning to uni. On the way grab your apple (other phones are available) charging cable and phone and head out the door.

You make your lecture late, but still, you are here. An hour passes and you glance at your phone, and it says 10% charged...you wonder how, as it was plugged in all night. Never mind you reach into your pocket to get your charger.

Ah, annoyingly it's broken, panic sets in, and you realise why it hasn't charged. You'll hope and pray the 10% battery will last until you finish uni for the day. No such luck it runs out...and you needed to use it to order an uber and pay. Never mind you have a few pounds in your pocket enough to pay for the bus.

En route walking home you see a shop selling cheap chargers which fit your phone and a bargain at only ￡3.99 way cheaper than the branded option.

Especially pivotal now as you only have a few pounds on you and you need a charger. So you forsake the bus money and buy one then head back to your accommodation, which sadly isn't on the university site.

Heading home you pick up a tray of chips with the remaining few pounds and after a long day finally, get through the door it's late, you are soaked from the rain and just want your bed. After plugging in your phone to charge, you finally relax in the chair scrolling socials. You make a mental note to pick up an extension lead tomorrow, so you can lie scrolling your phone in bed.

As you start to fall asleep the phone drops onto the floor waking you. You head to bed leaving the phone on the other side of the room on the floor near the window, which is slightly ajar.

You drift off to sleep...when the loudest ringing is happening all around you. You come around to find there is smoke in your room and it's the smoke alarm going off.

You struggle out of bed, close your fire door, and rush to the nearest fire exit...its obstructed by a road safety barrier from one of your nights out. You clamber over it alongside some of the other students and all assemble in the car park.

You are all safe, but there's a small fire in your room, luckily you closed the fire door. After the fire brigade leave, you find out the charger lead caught fire and ruined your phone in the process. That's going to cost a fortune to replace, but at least you and your flatmates are safe.

So let me ask you is it worth it?

Why should you buy an authorized, reputable charging cable that can be expensive, and what should you look out for?

You'll need to ensure it has a 'Made for iPhone, iPad MFI sticker, introduced in 2005. That is a licensing program ensuring all those third-party accessories are actually designed to work—under Apple’s specs—with your iDevices, (source Ziemenski, 2018).

Did you know using a cheap charging cable, damages the tristar (U2 chip), impairing charging capacity? (Source Ziemenski, 2018). And it will fry your phone's battery, so it's not worth it. At least purchasing an approved MFI one (if you have an apple product), will mitigate this happening.

You later find out that the fire door in your room stopped the spread of the fire and mitigated further damage, thank goodness.

So what's the deal with fire doors?

Fire doors have an FD rating, which means how long they can withstand fire. For example, an FD60 door will offer protection from fire for 60 mins. However, no matter the rating, if they are not fit for purpose or propped open, they will offer no protection in effect, as useful as a chocolate teapot.

The use of fire door sets is for a 3-fold purpose:

1. To maintain the integrity of means of escape in the event of a fire - By stopping smoke and toxic gases from entering stairways, corridors, etc

2. To isolate areas within a building that represent a significant fire risk - By stopping heat and flame from entering or leaving them

3. To provide access through compartment walls - Whilst still maintaining compartmentation to limit the spread and effect of fire in a building

Correctly sited (via a Fire Risk Assessment ideally via third-party accredited specialists) and maintained (ideally via third-party accredited contractors) fire door sets are a major part of the preservation of life and property in a premise.

Did you know that according to the Fire Protection Association (FPA), 76% of fire doors failed inspections in 2019?

Fire safety inspections

That's why all student multi-occupancy buildings should have regular fire door safety inspections.

This is because, this gives building managers, owners, and tenants, peace of mind that the fire doors within their properties have been checked by a competent person and that any remedial actions needed to meet the requirements of BS476 have been highlighted.

Checks

Current risk assessment guidance recommends that fire doors and components should be checked periodically. The Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS) suggests that inspections should be carried out every 6 months. What is important here is that this is not a nice to or a box-ticking exercise. The statistics already show a large number of failures.

For more information you can sign up for our free webinar on The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, it's Wednesday 18 January 2023 at 12 noon.

For anyone reading this, if you see a fire door bolted, chained, blocked, broken, or open, report it

Remember health and safety are everyone's business and being prepared may well just save your life one day.

If you would like to know more why not sign up for our Ligtas-certified fire safety awareness course?

Ligtas : Fire Safety Awareness: Course Overview

The Fire Safety Awareness course will cover fire hazards, prevention, and precautions. Introducing the fire triangle participants will learn about the importance of managing fire risks.

It can be done online in just a few hours, booking can be done online, or via the telephone at 02922 800 000 or?[email protected]

Good luck with your studies this year and without sounding like your mum, please be safe