Council calls for action on supermarket blazes

The Loss Prevention Council is calling for urgent action to slash the number of shop fires in the UK.

In the 12 months to June this year there have been 14 shop fires each costing more than œ250,000. The list includes 11 superstore blazes, six of which cost more than œ1 million and a Bristol supermarket fire which killed firefighter Fleur Lombard in February of this year.

The LPC says that fire-prevention is a collective responsibility with developers, architects, owners and the Government needing to understand the problem before solutions can be addressed.

Large single storey buildings are built from comparatively low cost and flammable materials and are particularly at risk from fire, which can spread rapidly through roof voids or above false ceilings.

Solutions would include the installation of sprinklers, compartmentalising superstores.

Stewart Kidd, LPC's head of external affairs said: "Someone out there with the power to take action must realise that there's a very real problem here which simply won't go away. Or do we have to wait until we have fire deaths of the sort we have come to expect from countries like China before any action is taken?"