Concern as fire crews are unable to access Fairweather Green street (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Resident hits out after fears for lives

10:30am Saturday 4th June 2011 in Fairweather Green By Hannah Baker

Residents who have complained for years about a narrow entrance to a small side street fear for their lives after a fire engine was unable to access the road.

Firefighters were called to a house in Thornton Old Mews, Fairweather Green, Bradford, after a mattress in a bedroom caught fire at around 10am yesterday. Although nobody was injured, Roy Fairweather, 76, who lives next-door with his wife in one of three Yorkshire Housing properties on the street, said he wanted to move house due to concerns for their safety.

He said he had spent almost a decade trying to alert housing officials to the possible dangers of the access point, which he says has been made narrower by new housing developments nearby.

He said: “There were three families that could have been destroyed today. That’s the situation – nobody’s listening to me. When my wife collapsed with a brain tumour three months ago they couldn’t get an ambulance through.

“If it had happened at night we would have been dead. It would have swept right through the three houses.”

Mr Fairweather’s stepson and two granddaughters, who live in the house where the fire started, were alerted by a smoke detector to the blaze, thought to have been caused by an electrical fault. Firefighters had to extend their 60-metre hose reel to reach the home, due to the narrow access to the street.

Steve Haley, watch commander at Fairweather Green fire station, said: “The hose is 60 metres and it generally goes most places. It caused a slight delay but we are trained for that.”

Nadhia Khan, head of housing services at Yorkshire Housing, said: “Yorkshire Housing tenants have raised their concerns that private developments in the area have restricted emergency vehicle access to their properties. We are fully supportive of our tenants’ concerns on this issue and we are investigating current and old planning permissions to identify if new private developments have breached Yorkshire Housing land boundaries, restricting emergency vehicle access.

“We will be liaising with Bradford Council’s planning department.”

• Read the full story in Saturday's T&A