THE daughter of a woman who died in a fire in her flat has vowed to campaign for council homes to be fitted with smoke alarms.
Avril Wood’s mother, Irene Linnane, 70, died two weeks ago when a candle she lit for the late Pope John Paul II set fire to her 12th floor flat in Newton Street, Holborn.
The blaze came just a week after an elderly man was injured in a blaze at Bacton, another Camden Council tower block in Haverstock Road, Gospel Oak.
Tenants there had been campaigning for safety improvements and more sensitive placements for vul-nerable residents since a third blaze earlier this year.
Alarms and smoke detectors are not fitted at either building, nor are they fitted at two tower blocks on the Chalcots Estate in Swiss Cottage, which have also suffered fires in the last year.
But the Town Hall says legislation does not require it to fit either smoke detectors or alarms to old buildings and the Fire Brigade has no powers to make inspections at residential addresses.
Ms Wood said: “When I found out there were no fire alarms because they were too old, it made me mad. I can’t believe there would be regulations that didn’t include having fire alarms.
“I will fight until I die on this because it’s for Irene.”
Her campaign has the support of the Fire Brigade Union (FBU).
Mick Shaw, from the London branch of the FBU, said: “We would like to see the widest installation possible of smoke alarms. We support sprinklers being installed; it is one stage of protection further.”
The inferno at Ms Linnane’s 13-storey council block gutted eight flats and took 40 firefighters from four fire stations three-and-a-half hours to contain as glass rained down on the street below.
A Town Hall press official said tenants had been encouraged to apply for free fire brigade smoke detectors but added the council could not afford to fit them everywhere.
Around 5,500 have been fitted in Camden in the last two years.
She added: “There is no obligation to bring properties up to current regulations retrospectively. Mains wired smoke alarms are fitted where the electrical installation is renewed but the council does not currently carry out a programme of rewiring.
“This is mainly due to the costs involved.
“As part of the £283 million Almo bid to meet the Decent Homes Standard the council would have carried out a programme to rewire properties and include smoke alarms.
“We are continuing to press government to release these funds.”
Dozens of friends and family gathered at her funeral at Golders Green Crematorium to celebrate the life of Ms Linnane, a popular Covent Garden character. She worked as a chef, nanny and latterly as a volunteer at the YMCA charity shop in Goodge Street.
After the funeral, a wake was held in Irene’s favourite pub, The Princess Louise, in High Holborn.
Friends from the pub and the charity shop told how Ms Linnane would come in on Saturdays with her shopping bags and Lottery tickets and entertain the whole pub with her wonderful singing voice.