Eldon Court: Students Evacuated Over Fire Risk Concerns
Up to 300 students were recently evacuated from Eldon Court, a student accommodation building.
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service issued a prohibition notice for the privately-owned accommodation after an inspection. Deputy Chief Fire Officer Dave Walton said: “We were called in after a survey of the building revealed several potential fire risks. The risks were so serious that it would have been dangerous to allow people to continue to stay in the building once these were identified”.
The prohibition notice was issued under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Article 31, a notice under the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988.
A University of Leeds student, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Gryphon that while the building was ‘liveable’, fire drills or similar safety procedures did not take place.
He adds that there was little communication on the news of the evacuation, as he and other students who were away for the winter holidays did not receive notifying emails or messages.
In 2017, two Unite Students accommodation blocks in Leeds were found to have failed fire safety cladding checks. Introduced in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, cladding combustibility tests were carried out on high-rises across the UK.
Sky Plaza, a 34-storey student building opened in 2009 and located next to the First Direct Arena, was immediately closed following the report published during the summer, and did not reopen until the following academic year in 2018, after extensive work was carried out on the building.
Concept Place, also owned by Unite Students, and located on Burley Road, failed as well but was not closed. Instead, cladding was removed from the side of the much smaller building whilst students continued to live there, with temporary fire alarms installed, smoking areas relocated and fire watches set up.
In both incidents, there was less disruption than in Eldon Court because the failures were found out of term time, meaning there were few residents living in them at the time. Those who were due to move in to Sky Plaza were found alternative accommodation before the start of term.
Some of those living in Eldon Court documented the evacuation on the video-sharing app TikTok. One user, @martynna.x, captured the experience of only being given 30 minutes to pack essential belongings before being forced from the building, with the video reaching nearly 400,000 views. Another, @speaknowstanfr, spoke about their experience during the evacuation and made updates about the emergency accommodation they had been given.
Eldon Court housed 169 University of Leeds students and 12 Leeds Beckett University students. Since the evacuation, the universities have found emergency accommodation for the students affected.
“Our residence teams worked together throughout the night to make sure all students were settled in university accommodation. The safety and wellbeing of our students remains our top priority, and we will ensure they continue to have access to secure and safe accommodation for as long as required”.
A spokesperson from the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University
Eldon Court’s managing company, Northend Management, has been contacted for comment.
