Wachtwoord vergeten?
Calls for Sprinklers after Two Deaths in German Care Home Fire
ZDF, the German broadcaster, did a piece yesterday in its Frontal 21 programme on a fire in a care home on 9th February, in which an elderly resident died. The TV programme highlighted the weak safety standards in Germany, where there is no national requirement to fit smoke alarms or sprinklers in care homes.
In interviews, care home owners said that there was no requirement to fit these measures and that they could not afford them. However, Werner Thon of the Hamburg Fire Brigade said that the German Fire Service has long believed that a national standard was necessary. The programme went on to comment that sprinklers are already required in care homes in five European countries, which is information collected by the European Fire Sprinkler Network. Stephan Neuhoff, the Cologne Fire Brigade Chief, said that sprinklers are necessary in care homes.
Eugen Brysch, chairman of the German Hospice Trust, a patient care association said, "In Germany property is better protected than people. Every high-bay warehouse must have a sprinkler system but not homes for the elderly." He claimed that 20 people die each year in German care home fires, and that when it came to cost, German society could not afford not to fit sprinklers in care homes.
The programme also interviewed politicians and civil servants. See http://frontal21.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/22/0,1872,8219350,00.html for the full broadcast.
Meanwhile this morning, 10th March there has been another death in a German care home fire, this time in Garbsen in Lower Saxony. The damage was estimated at €100,000 as the entire unit burnt out.
(bron: European Fire Sprinkler Network)
