Are sprinklers in fact the answer?

THERE is clamour on all sides for the urgent installation of sprinklers in high-rise flats. I will confess straight away that I am not an expert on the subject; neither, I suspect, are many of the vociferous people on TV.

I would, however, like to make an observation.

Apparently it was assumed that any fire in a tower block could be confined to one or two units affected by the origin of the blaze and that the fire service could then put out the fire without it spreading.

How would the sprinklers be controlled?

Would they be confined to the blazing flats? If so, they may buy a little time, but to be effective they would have to operate outside the confines of the flats on fire.

If this is the case then think of this scenario. There is a chip pan fire on the, say, the 12th floor.

I live on the ground floor and can easily escape if the fire spreads but if the fire is quickly extinguished then I can stay put and watch my TV with a snack on my lap.

Meanwhile, on come the sprinklers, my TV blows up, my supper is drowned and all my worldly possessions are ruined. But wait a minute; it was not a chip pan fire. Some idiots had set the sprinklers off with a burning newspaper for a bit of fun.

I may have made light of a serious subject but I hope any new safety decisions are not