The Major Loss That Wasn’t: How sprinklers helped Next PLC during the pandemic
The pandemic has certainly taken its toll on the high street. In the run-up to April 12, when non-essential shops could once again welcome customers, the last thing any retailer would want would be a major fire.
Next are a long-standing Zurich customer and take risk management very seriously, but there was little they could do to prevent an arsonist setting light to an abandoned mattress, right outside the front of their “Outlet” store in Croydon.
A call went in to our Property Expert Claims function and Paul Redington, the local Regional Major Loss Manager, immediately made contact with the client and the nominated loss adjuster from Quest Gates. The initial indications were not good, given the store was over three floors and full of valuable stock.
Such was its intensity, the fire had breached the plate glass, and started to engulf the window display area, but one thing saved the day – sprinklers.
Next’s Group Insurance Manager Martin Smyth comments:
"Being quite a sizable unit, with over £10m as a value at risk, we assumed the worst. Within 24 hours Paul from Zurich's Major Loss Team was able to meet our loss adjuster and store management. It was quickly apparent that the loss wasn't as bad as initially feared. Whilst there was some damage to the shop and its contents, without the successful deployment of the in-store sprinkler system this would have been a much larger incident."
Paul takes up the story:
“Quite simply the sprinklers did their job here. From what I saw on-site the fire had been only inches away from setting mannequins alight and the display boards behind them. Had that occurred it would have spread into the main store, billowing smoke throughout and most likely writing off the stock whilst causing huge amounts damage to fixtures and fittings too.”
This experience underlines the importance of fire suppression, and the need to consider an appropriate system where the underlying risks justify it.
It’s not just in the Commercial area where sprinklers can pay dividends in terms of business continuity, they have a key role to play in the Public Sector too. Zurich’s campaign to make sprinklers mandatory in English schools has highlighted that more than 1,100 classrooms have been destroyed by fire in just the last 5 years.
Paul concludes. ”Our team continue to deal with incidents where children’s education – already disrupted by the pandemic – has been severely impacted by a fire which could have been extinguished before it got out of hand. One success story involved a claim I handled for a school in South London and where sprinklers successfully put out a laser cutting machine which had ignited in a DT room. Damage was minimal and pupils and staff suffered very little disruption at all”
In the meantime, the team at Next have been able to re-open the doors to customers, safe in the knowledge that sprinklers continue to protect their store.
