Can carers lock in my brother in case of a fire?

[Guest Keith]

Hello there, this is for some advice I would like you to clarify to me if you can in regards to my brother who lives in a council house with his carer.

His carer works for a well known company and has a regular risk assessment about various concerns within the house,but what has startled me in reading his assessment into fire procedures is this " if my brother refused to move, even when encouraged to do so, all doors will be closed and he will be kept as safe as possible until the fire services arrive, at that point they will inform them of my brothers whereabouts". This is what has been rote, this can't be legal, what about smoke inhalation. I would be grateful for some legalities here thanks.

[green-foam]

Just my opinion.

If your brother does not want to move if there is a fire, what do you expect his carer to do about it? No, really, what do you expect one carer to actually do? One carer on their own can not lift anyone. If the carer stays in the room and is overcome by smoke, how will the fire brigade know there is some one in the building, if your brother wants to stay put, then the carer can go out and inform the fire brigade he is in the building and where he is.

You don't mention in what you say has been written about the doors being locked, but to a point I agree. It will stop your brother from moving from where he is, so the fire brigade will not have to search for him.

[Safelincs]

In a way this is the 'stay-put' policy with an extra twist (lock-in). The 'stay-put' policy of encouraging people to stay in their flats etc is sometimes used where more problems than help are expected from mass evacuation. A pre-condition is, of course, that the flat is sufficiently sealed against smoke, has sufficient fire resistance and can be accessed by the brigade.

Harry

[Tom Sutton]

As green-foam has said, in such a situation "what do you expect his carer to do about it" but for peace of mind you could get the local fire and rescue service to conduct a fire risk check, most do carry them out. Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/uk-fire-rescue-services-details/ which will give you the details of your local FRS.