What happened at Shirley Towers in Southampton?

On 6 April 2010 a fire broke out in Shirley Towers, a high-rise block of flats in Southampton. The fire would tragically result in the deaths of two firefighters.

How did the Shirley Towers fire start?

The fire started when a resident switched on a lamp that was touching a curtain. It soon became hot enough to ignite the material and start the fire.

When the first fire crews arrived they made their way into the flat which was filled with thick black smoke. It was so dense that when carrying out a standard search they failed to notice the fire in the kitchen and made their way upstairs to the bedrooms.

Arriving at the middle landing a fire door was seen wedged open. Had it been closed they would have immediately realised the fire was on the floor level now below them. Without realising this, they continued to the bedrooms in search of the fire.

Once in the bedroom they decided to open a window to ventilate the dense smoke. This caused a chimney effect which produced a sudden escalation in the growth of the fire. Intense heat and flames engulfed their surroundings, trapping the firefighters.

What can the industry learn from the Shirley Towers fire?

Rescue of the firefighters was made extremely difficult under evacuation conditions, which should have been initiated earlier. This was complicated further by mixed radio messaging providing conflicting information to members of the fire crews.

Falling debris also became tangled in the firefighters’ safety equipment, which hampered any attempts to exit.

These lessons have prompted a change to operations and safety equipment - the design of firefighter helmets are now much less likely to become entangled in such conditions. Firefighters are also now equipped with cutting equipment in the event it’s required.

The coroner’s report into the incident recorded the deaths as misadventure and called upon high-rise developments greater than 30m to be equipped with water sprinkler systems.