Fire trap fears Over-60s tower block door broken for three days

COUNCIL chiefs have apologised to residents of an over-60s tower block in South Bristol, after it took three days to fix the front door, leaving some elderly people inside unable to get out of the building.

- Tristan CORK

A formal complaint has been submitted by the tenants' rep of the tower block, saying the council left many in the building in a potentially dangerous situation for days.

Residents at Gilton House in Brislington first began reporting that the electric-powered mechanism on the only door out of the building had failed at around 3pm on July 1.

It meant the door had to be opened manually, and the mechanism overridden by force - something many residents couldn't do, leaving them unable to get out of the building or calling on the help from neighbours.

Nigel Varley, who lives in the tower block and is the residents' rep, said that was a potentially dangerous situation.

"The door had to be pushed open," he said. "It is very stiff and some of our residents with limited mobility found this either very difficult or impossible. Also, if the door-opening button was pushed, the door jammed until the electric motor stopped working," he added.