SIPTU members in the Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) have today (Monday, 11th March) renewed their call for a full risk assessment of properties built or extended from approximately 2000 to 2014 due to the large number of fire safety issues discovered in a recent survey of apartment blocks constructed during this period. SIPTU Sector Organiser, Brendan O’Brien, said: “One of the largest property management companies in the state, Keenan Property Management (KPM), has said that significant fire safety issues have been discovered in ‘almost all’ of the 60 apartment developments included in a recent survey of apartment blocks it manages.” “This is stark, but unfortunately, not an unexpected finding. The company must be commended on the pro-active approach which it undertook in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017. Local authorities need to show the same degree of concern and undertake a similar survey of all commercial, leisure, nursing and hospital buildings constructed or extended during the period when so-called ‘light-touch regulation’ was at its most extreme.” SIPTU DFB Convenor, Shane McGill, said: “A particularly concerning aspect of the survey, for the lives and safety of firefighters, is the lack of proper compartmentation in many of the buildings surveyed. In such a structure, fire can spread easily and in a very unpredictable manner. Fire and gas can spread through cavities to hidden and difficult areas to access, placing lives at greater risk.” SIPTU DFB Section Chair, Deirdre Taylor, said: “Local authorities must act now in order to ensure we do not experience a preventable fire tragedy in this country. Extra resources are needed for the DFB and other fire services until remedial work which may be necessary is completed.”
Dublin Fire Brigade calls for full inspection of properties built during ‘Celtic Tiger’
