A housing association has explained why sprinklers were disrupted when its tower block caught fire.
Watford Community Housing has said that the fire beginning outside the Abbey View tower block meant that it damaged the sprinkler feed pipe, disrupting the system.
Watford Community Housing Chief executive Tina Barnard described the fire starting in an external area as “an unforeseen event”.
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She said: “The fire was external to the building and damaged a sprinkler feed pipe, which caused a disruption to the system.
“This was an unforeseen event and is being reviewed with the system installers.
“While repairs are being undertaken on the sprinkler system, we have enhanced our overnight security presence to support the existing operational fire detection system.”
She added that sprinkler systems did deploy, but only in the internal areas that were directly affected by the fire, to avoid the potential for widespread water damage.
The association has also said that alarms did activate but again only in areas that are immediately affected, in line with fire strategy.
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