Gentoo customers living in high-rise residential buildings across Sunderland enjoyed a day learning about the importance of fire doors and receiving vital safety tips.
To coincide with Fire Door Safety Week (which runs from September 25-29), six customers were shown around the training facility of contractor Isoler in the city, where they took part in practical fire safety demonstrations and received expert advice from staff.
The group are all members of Gentoo’s Building Safety Customer Group, which ensures customers have a key voice on building safety matters. The visit will also help them in their roles as fire safety ambassadors for the properties where they live.
Thomas Cubby, who is chair of the group, said: “It was a really interesting day learning about fire doors. I now feel confident enough to speak to other Gentoo customers about why we need to make sure our fire doors used correctly and how we can report them if we do think there is a problem.”
Fellow customer Michelle Wooton, added: “It was educational, it showed what they do to help us and what it saves you from and what gives you more time, if there’s a fire in the property, to be able to leave.”
Gemma Darville, Head of Health and Safety at Gentoo Group, said: “We’re delighted that we are able to work closely with Isoler to provide this type of training to our customers.
“It’s great to see how committed our Building Safety Customer Group are to making a difference. We’re really lucky to have a passionate group of people who work closely with us to make sure all of our customers are safe in their homes.”
Josh Watson, Contracts Director at Isoler, said: “After working in close partnership with Gentoo now for a few years, we welcomed the opportunity to invite their tenants into our bespoke training facility to showcase the safety critical works we carry out for Gentoo each day.
“It was great to see how engaged they were and I hope they enjoyed it as much as our team did!”
Gentoo has registered all its high-rise residential buildings and submitted all key building information with the Building Safety Regulator ahead of the October 1 deadline as required under the Building Safety Act.
Any customer living in a Gentoo high-rise residential property who would like to be part of the Building Safety Customer Group can email buildingsafety@gentoogroup.com or call Stacey Thwaites, Building Safety Advisor on 07801 532 594 or they can visit https://www.gentoogroup.com/get-involved/ for more information.
Fire Door Safety Week aims to raise the awareness of their vital role in saving lives and protecting property in the event of a fire. For more information, visit: https://www.firedoorsafetyweek.co.uk/
