After tackling a fire on the sixth floor of a tower block on the 24th November – which sprinklers are yet to be fitted in – a firefighter sustained injury and needed medical treatment.
At around 18:30, the fire broke out from inside one of the kitchens in the flats in Cumberland Towers, which is located at Norwich Road in Ipswich.
Close to 30 firefighters from Suffolk and Essex attended the fire scene in an attempt to neutralise the blaze, and some of those firefighters rescued an elderly man inside the flat. The man was taken to hospital for treatment.
Speaking after the blaze, the fire service stated that the firefighter in question who rescued the elderly man – who was the first into the flat – also needed medical treatment for breathing in substantial amounts of smoke at the scene.
Unlike the elderly man however, the firefighter didn’t need to go to hospital after being treated by attending paramedics at the scene.
Will Tel, the Suffolk Fire and Rescue group commander, has said that an investigation has begun into finding out the cause of the fire.
Prior to the fire, the tower block was undergoing a £1m refurbishment, with Ipswich’s MP – Sandy Martin – declaring that there are plans to install sprinklers in the building, partially because of the tragic Grenfell Tower disaster in June.
