Around 70 students evacuated their halls of residence at Oxford Brookes this week after hearing a fire alarm go off, when a fire broke out in a communal kitchen within the building.

16 firefighters from Rewley Road and Slade Park fire stations tackled the blaze which was caused by an unattended cooking pan, filling the ground-floor kitchen and two staircases with smoke.

Station manager Guy Dunkley, who attended the incident, said: "The students followed the right procedure and evacuated the building straight away, which certainly made our job easier.

"A male student in his late teens left a frying pan unattended on the heat, which then caught fire.

"The student came back and tried to tackle the fire himself and suffered minor burns to his hands and was treated at hospital after he breathed in smoke."

Commercial buildings, non-domestic and multi-occupancy premises in England and Wales are already forced to undertake a 'suitable and sufficient' fire risk assessment carried out under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

While the overwhelming majority of premises do this, if the assessment is thought to have been carried out to an insufficient extent, the Responsible Person can face an unlimited fine or up to two years in prison.

Original sources

Oxford Mail

BBC news