New England House reopened
Following a temporary closure over the weekend to put in place necessary fire safety mitigations, New England House reopened to business tenants on Tuesday 12 November.
The decision to temporarily close the building at short notice on Friday 8 November took into account new information contained in a fire engineer’s report concerning the level of immediate risk to life in the event of a fire that could not be ignored.
To be able to reopen and ensure the safety of everyone using the building, the council has put in place additional safety measures.
Experienced fire wardens are now situated in the building and a system for signing in and out will be put in place.
The opening times of the building will also be limited to prevent people being there overnight. For the foreseeable future the opening hours of New England House will be 7am until 11pm, 7 days a week.
These extra measures will be continuously reviewed to ensure they reduce the fire risk and meet the needs of the tenants.
An urgent meeting with the building’s tenants was held on Monday 11 November to discuss the findings of the fire engineer’s report and the necessary actions moving forward.
Councillor Jacob Taylor, Cabinet Member for Finance and City Regeneration, commented on the closure: “I want to offer a genuine apology to the businesses, staff and families impacted by the temporary closure of New England House over the weekend.
“I know this is a nightmare for tenants, particularly in the run up to Christmas for the many local creative industries based at New England House.
“Closing the building at short notice was not a decision we wanted to take but based on safety and risk to life it as the right one to take. The new information in the fire engineer’s report listed the risk as intolerable – the highest risk to a building.
“We’ve put in place short term mitigations to allow businesses to return and we’re working out the best longer term fire prevention measures for the building.”
Other reports which revealed parts of the picture, the council commissioned fire engineer’s report to provide comprehensive and detailed view of fire safety in building.
The Firenta fire report brings together all of the fire risk information into one place and analyses what would happen in detail should a fire break out in one of the business units. It provides a clear explanation of the fire safety issues, detailing their implications and how they pose a risk to life safety.
You can read a summary of the fire report findings or the full fire safety report on the council’s website.
