Community safety event to be held in Seaton area
17 May 2019
A community safety event is to be held where people living in the Seaton area of the city will be able to get free advice on fire and crime prevention.
The informative event will be held outside North Sea Court on the afternoon of Wednesday 22 May and will include officers from Aberdeen City Council, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, as well as a food presence from CFINE, and other invited partners.
There will be a focus on fire safety, fire prevention, and how to prevent false fire alarms aimed at the residents in the nearby four multi storeys and three sheltered housing buildings.
Information which will be shared with residents at the event include the most common causes of false fire alarms in multi storey buildings which includes people smoking or vaping in communal areas such as hallways or drying rooms, dust created by home improvement works, electrical faults, fire alarms being triggered by cooking, and malicious call-outs.
Aberdeen City Council chief officer on early intervention and community empowerment Derek McGowan said: “We’ve been working closely with SFRS to help residents as most fires and false fire alarms are preventable.
“As well as being potentially dangerous in the event of a real fire, false fire alarms can cause a lot of inconvenience to multi storey residents as lifts are out of action for up to an hour afterwards.
“We’d encourage everyone in the area to come along and find out how they can prevent fires and false smoke alarms.”
The event follows on from SFRS officers visiting St Peter’s and Seaton primary schools earlier this week where they held a presentation on fire safety during a special assembly.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Group Manager Darren Riddell said: “Each year, we attend numerous call-outs to false alarms within Aberdeen’s multi storey buildings.
“These incidents impact significantly on SFRS, as personnel and fire appliances are unable to respond to other incidents. This is a great opportunity to educate residents on how they can help in reducing these calls and keep themselves safe from the risk of fire.”
The community safety event will be taking place outside North Sea Court from 3.30pm to 5.30pm, and a leaflet outlining what residents can do will be available. Residents are also urged to book a free home safety visit from the SFRS by calling 0800 0731 or texting ‘fire’ to 80800.