Firefighters to practice high rise rescue in Brighton city centre

If you see scores of firefighters in North Road next week, don’t panic – East Sussex Fire and Rescue are conducting a high rise exercise.

Crews from Preston Circus, Roedean, Hove and Lewes will practising their response to reports of a fire in a building on North Road.

The exercise is due to take place next Wednesday afternoon. Fire engines from other parts of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service will provide emergency cover during the exercise.

The fire service has isseud this advice for high rise residents:

• High-rise flats are designed to contain fires within a flat or compartment whilst communal corridors and stairs provide escape routes based on occupancy and height of the building.
• If there is a fire inside your flat or maisonette our advice is to alert all the people in your flat and leave, closing your doors behind you. You should follow your escape plan and if there is lots of smoke, crawl along the floor where the air should be clearer.
• Always use the stairs rather than the lift and call 999 as soon as you are in a safe place.
• If there is a fire elsewhere in the building then the structure of your flat – walls, floors, doors – are designed to give you a minimum of 30-60 minutes’ protection from a fire.
• If there is a fire in your building but not inside your own home, then you are usually safer to stay in your flat unless the heat or smoke from the fire is affecting you. If you stay put you should still immediately call 999.
• It is important to remember that this advice may change and you should follow the instructions of firefighters when they arrive on scene.