Fires in your home or building

If there is a fire in your home or building, follow the guidance on what you should do for the type of home and building you live in. Never try to put out the fire yourself or use a lift.

Fire safety information for your home 

If you, or anyone in your household, would need help to reach a safe place during a fire, please call 0191 525 5050 and let us know

If your flat is connected to our Concierge Service 

If the fire alarm goes off in your flat:

  • Our Concierge Team will contact you to check what is happening
  • If there is no fire, they will cancel the alarm
  • If you confirm there is a fire, or if you do not answer within 120 seconds, they will call the fire and rescue service

Fires in your building

If you live in a block of flats with a shared entrance and shared staircase, you must follow your building’s evacuation strategy.

You will have been told what your building’s strategy is:

  • In your annual fire safety leaflet
  • On the fire action notices on each floor of your building

Stay Put Strategy 

Some buildings operate a Stay Put strategy.

This means:

  • You only need to leave your home if the fire is in your flat
  • If the fire is somewhere else in the building, and you feel safe, you can stay inside your home and wait for instructions from the fire and rescue service
  • If you do not feel safe, leave your home and the building as soon as possible

Stay Put buildings include:

  • Sheltered housing and extra care schemes
  • Some high-rise (18 metres /7 storeys or taller) and low-rise buildings (under 18 metres /7 storeys)

Simultaneous or Phased Evacuation

If your building uses a simultaneous or phased evacuation strategy:

  • You must leave the building every time you hear the fire alarm in your flat, even if the fire is not in your home
  • If you hear the alarm or the fire and rescue service tells you to evacuate, leave your home and the building immediately

Evacuating your home and building

If you need to evacuate, you must:

  • leave your home straight away
  • close all doors behind you
  • use the nearest exit to get to a safe place outside
  • Activate a manual call point (red fire alarm box) if one is nearby
  • dial 999, explain what has happened, where you are, and your building’s full address
  • stay in the safe place until you are told it is safe to go back inside

If the fire is in a communal area that you are in:

  • leave by the nearest exit 
  • activate a manual call point if you can
  • call 999 with details of the fire and your location

Fire risk assessments

We carry out fire risk assessments every year in all of our 25 high-rise buildings, or sooner if there are major changes. 

We also complete regular assessments in all our other communal buildings, including:

  • low-rise buildings
  • sheltered housing schemes
  • extra care schemes
  • buildings converted into flats

Other fire safety checks

To help keep you and your building safe, we carry out several regular fire safety checks. 

Weekly checks 

We test the communal fire alarm every week in any block of flats that has one.

Monthly checks in high-rise buildings  

 Every month, we check key firefighting equipment in all our 25 high-rise buildings. This includes:

  • automatic doors that are linked to the fire alarm
  • dry risers
  • fire detection and alarm systems
  • lifts
  • smoke control systems
  • sprinkler systems where fitted

Fire door inspections

  • We inspect all flat entrance doors and communal fire doors every year 
  • In buildings over 11 metres tall, communal fire doors are checked every 3 months

For more information

If you would like a copy of any of these inspections, please contact the Fire and Building Safety Team by: