Hanover Tower Sheffield: Resident calls for police investigation into council's 'failings' over fire safety

‘Remedial work’ at Hanover Tower, on Exeter Drive, Broomhall, saw the dry riser removed for a number of days from floors 13 to 15 of the 118-flat tower block. A dry riser is a system of pipework and valves that runs up through a building. The system allows firefighters to easily access water from each individual floor of the building.

Residents at the tower block were given a letter on March 24 by Sheffield City Council alerting them of the ‘essential’ fire safety work being undertaken on the dry riser until March 28.

However, resident Jeremy Fisher has criticised the removal of the dry riser, which could have left residents in danger in the case of a fire. He said: “Several hundred people live in Hanover. What would have happened if there had been a fire? People could have died because of this.

“Did South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue know before we told them that the dry riser pipe had been sawed off so it would not work?”

In an email addressed to Sheffield City Council on Friday, March 24, Mr Fisher wrote that he had alerted SYFR of the works, and said: “We believe Sheffield Council is putting our lives in danger.”

A spokesperson for SYFR said they visited the building on March 24 after being “notified of concerns regarding the dry riser and smoke control arrangements”. SYFR advised Sheffield Council to review the evacuation strategy at the building “with immediate effect”, and a waking watch was instructed at the property while the work was carried out.

Janet Sharpe, director of housing services at Sheffield Council said “additional fire safety support to reassure residents” was put in place to ensure that the safety and security of the tower block was maintained during the “essential work” on the dry riser.

Attached to Mr Fisher’s email was his draft report calling for a police investigation ‘into the failings of fire safety at Hanover’, which also made reference to the use of cladding with ‘no flame retardant properties’ that was removed from the block in 2017.