People living in Bristol’s tower blocks say they have scored an important victory in their campaign for better fire safety, as they held a vigil and protest to mark two months since the fatal fire at Twinnell House.
The residents of the tower blocks of Easton, Lawrence Hill and Barton Hill have been calling on Bristol City Council to step up fire safety measures following the fire on September 25, which killed Abdul Jabar Oryakhel and injured half a dozen other residents.
After several more fires at other tower blocks in the area, council chiefs have agreed to replace potentially dangerous cladding, install ‘waking watch’ wardens overnight and ‘speed up’ the delivery of a 2019 pledge to install sprinkler systems in each flat in a tower block.
Read more: Only one Bristol tower block installed with sprinklers since 2019 pledge
But now, the tower block campaigners, who are part of the community union Acorn, say they have secured a bigger pledge and say council chief Tom Renhard has agreed to install sprinkler systems in every single tower block in the city.
That pledge, which has not been confirmed by the council as yet, and is not thought to be announced until January, could cost the council another £10 million - more than double the amount pledged in January 2019 when a programme to install sprinklers in some of the most vulnerable tower blocks was announced.
Earlier this month, a Bristol Live investigation revealed that since the January 2019 announcement of a programme of sprinkler system installation, only one tower block in Bristol - Butler House in St George - actually had sprinklers installed. The programme ran into delays in 2019, then more issues caused by the pandemic in 2020, but council chiefs have refused to explain why, since work began at Butler House more than two years ago, no other tower blocks have had sprinklers installed, with the money set aside for the programme apparently left unspent.
Acorn say now they are celebrating obtaining a pledge from housing chief Tom Renhard to install sprinklers in every tower block, and described it as a ‘huge win’.
Speaking after a vigil for Abdul Jabar to mark the two months since the fatal fire at Twinnell House, Amran Arab, who lives in Corbett House with her autistic daughter Hadaya, said: “As a mother of an autistic daughter living in a tower block, I always have extra anxiety around fire safety.
“Disabled people, many physically and elderly individuals, are put higher up, which compromises their safety. It’s about time Bristol City Council looks after their most vulnerable tenants. This Acorn campaign has given me the platform I need to voice all my concerns and I would encourage every Bristolian to get behind it as we all have families, friends, colleagues, students, patients, clients and many more, living in such accommodation,” she added.
Another Acorn member at the vigil and protest walk was Ahmed Sharif, who lived in Twinnell House when the fire broke out. “The game has changed since the community got together with Acorn,” he said. “We have seen real commitments from the council that are dreams-come-true for many tower residents,” he added.
Barton House resident Shaban Ali said tower block residents were pleased that they were finally being listened to by the mayor and council leaders. “It shouldn’t have taken this long or needed to turn into a battle for the council as well as the mayor to see common sense and stick to promises made in 2019, post-Grenfell, but we’re ecstatic our collective voice, along with the backing and support of Acorn, has been heard and finally action is being taken to make buildings safe. Families and their loved ones can now sleep easy,” he said.
Residents in the tower blocks of BS5 have held two open public meetings to discuss fire safety and call for more to be done since the Twinnell House fire two months ago, and empty-chaired Bristol City Council, Marvin Rees and Tom Renhard at both as they were invited and didn’t attend.
Earlier this month, Bristol City Council agreed to ‘speed up’ the sprinkler system installation programme, as well as replace the potentially dangerous cladding on 38 blocks of flats around Bristol, and expand the ‘waking watch’ warden scheme until that is done.
Back on November, Cllr Renhard said: “This is a precautionary measure that we’re taking. We’re arranging meetings with all of our residents in high-rise blocks, in conjunction with the fire service, so that residents can meet us and ask questions.
“We’ll be in regular communication as well, and they should follow any advice that we provide. The blocks with waking watches now have a simultaneous evacuation policy, so if there are concerns over a fire or smoke, they should be getting out of the building. The regulations have moved on a lot since Grenfell, and the original focus from Grenfell was on aluminium composite material cladding, which this is not. There’s new information that’s being brought forward all the time,” he added.
Acorn say Cllr Renhard and the council have now agreed to go even further and say the council has pledged to install sprinklers inside the flats in every high-rise tower block, have fire safety wardens and make fire risk assessments for every block in Bristol.
Acorn’s head organiser nationally is Bristolian Nick Ballard. “For eight years, Acorn has been the biggest and strongest force for tenants in the country,” he said. “The 72 people who died at Grenfell would still be alive today if their pleas had been taken seriously. Abdul Jabar Oryakhel might still be alive if these new safety measures had already been in place.
“We can’t rely on politicians, council bureaucrats or private contractors to look out for us. The people who are meant to be responsible for our safety will not police themselves. Acorn members were treated with contempt by Mayor Marvin Rees and Bristol City Council. We fought for and won these life-saving measures,” he added.
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