How to keep your home safe from fire

Our main priority is to make sure our customers are safe in their home and free from harm. This includes keeping you and your home safe in the event of a fire. Fires can start quickly and can cause devastating damage to your home as well as putting lives in danger.

What can Riverside do to help?

• We carry out regular risk assessments in all of our, schemes and all communal areas to check if there any problems and solve them as quickly as possible before an accident happens.
• We fit smoke alarms in our homes and carry out checks.  If you do not have any smoke alarms in your home please contact us and we will arrange to install them.
• We also check that fire detection systems in blocks are flats are maintained in line with legal requirements.
• Where required we have clear emergency exit signs in our communal areas to guide you to safety if there is a fire.
• We have a “full evacuation” or “stay put” policy in our flats and schemes to keep our tenants safe in an emergency. You should have been told about what to do where you live in the event of a fire, but if not it is important you contact us to get this information. It could save your life.

How can I help make my home fire safe?

Most fires start from cooking but people also regularly die from a fire started by a cigarette or broken electrics. Did you know, 56 people a year die just because their smoke alarm isn’t working?

Here’s a few things you can do to keep your home and family safe from a fire:

Check your smoke alarm works

• We want to keep you safe. We recommend you check your alarm once a week to make sure.
• All you have to do is press the button on your alarm.
• If there is no sound, change the batteries.

Take extra care when you are cooking

• When the cooker is switched on, don’t leave children alone in the kitchen and stay alert.
• Keep tea towels, cloths and any other materials away from the cooker.
• Make sure when you are finished, all of the appliances are switched off.

Be careful when smoking in your home

• It is always best to use glass, metal or ceramic ashtrays that can’t burn.
• Make sure when you stub your cigarette it is right out and not still alight.
• Don’t smoke in bed where you could fall asleep and forget about it.

Keep all communal areas free from rubbish

• Make sure you can easily escape from your home if there is a fire and there are no obstructions to stop you from doing so.
• Rubbish left in communal areas may also cause accidents if people are trying to escape in a hurry.

Check your electrics are safe

• At night time switch off all of your plugs and any air-fresheners.
• Regularly check for any hot plugs or plugs that have black or dark marks.
• Check if there are any broken or loose wires.
• If you find any of these, or feel there is a fault, contact us straight away.
• You can find more information on this electrical safety leaflet.

If you live in a flat, you can also find some useful advice from London Fire Brigade here about making sure you know what to do in the event of a fire.