Surefire services product saves a life in Tyne and Wear

Surefire Services product saves a life in Tyne and Wear

In September 2023 TWFRS received a 999 call to a house fire in Gateshead resulting from a Carecall monitored alarm activation. Mr D was rescued from the property and conveyed to hospital suffering from breathing difficulties. The cause of the fire was accidental, and a safeguarding referral was submitted to the local authority due to concerns for Mr D including self-neglect, alcohol issues, hoarding and mental health issues.

In October fire crews were called to a second house fire at the same address. Mr D was rescued by fire crews and required hospital treatment for breathing difficulties due to smoke inhalation. A further safeguarding referral was made with the same concerns. Due to the extensive fire damage following the second fire, the property was deemed uninhabitable.

Discussions were held with the housing company and Mr D was relocated to a hotel following his discharge from hospital, until a new property was secured for him. He successfully moved to his new address a short time later. On 21 December fire crews were mobilised to a fire at Mr Ds new address. Mr D was rescued and taken to hospital for treatment which resulted in a lengthy admission. Another safeguarding referral was submitted, and a request was made for an emergency meeting to be held due to the fact this was an extremely vulnerable individual; elderly, lived alone, smoker, alcohol issues. Mr D had been involved in three significant house fires over a three-month period, on every occasion he had to be rescued by fire crews and required hospital treatment.

An urgent multi-agency safeguarding meeting was held in December, further meetings led to agreements by partner agencies to carry out risk mitigating measures such as extending the monitored alarm as Mr D was known to smoke in bed. As part of these measures, under the TWFRS Ultimate Protection Model, it was planned to install UltraGuard, a personal protection system from Surefire.

Between January and February Mr D withdrew his engagement with housing and refused daily calls from the warden. He also refused to engage with the Gateshead Recovery partnership for support with his alcohol dependency and withdrew consent for the installation of the monitored smoke alarm in the bedroom. Further safeguarding meetings were held with partners to discuss the ongoing and increasing high fire risk. Partners worked together to re-engage Mr D and because of the hard work and persistence from all partners the UltraGuard Personal Protection System was installed.

Following installation of the UltraGuard system, a further fire incident occurred in Mr D’s home, however the detection activated causing the UltraGuard System to deploy prevented both serious damage to the property but most importantly injury to the occupier. This case study shows how a high risk and vulnerable occupier can be protected by partner agencies working towards a common goal.