Around 12 residents had to evacuate from a Barnsley apartment building at the weekend, after a fire broke out in a lower ground car park.

The alarm was raised by some passers-by who noticed flames a smoke emanating from the building and dialed 999. However, the smoke alarms in the building had already been activated and residents had begun to leave their residences before the Fire Service arrived.

Three fire crews attended the blaze, which involved one vehicle that was on fire. Firefighters used hose reels and breaking in equipment to check nobody was left inside the building and then extinguished the car fire.

A spokesman from South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue confirmed that no-one was injured in the fire, but that several flats on the first and second floors of the building had suffered smoke damage.

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

The Star