Fire On Far Gosford Street
Hundreds of students were evacuated from their student accommodation after a fire broke out earlier this week.
Early Wednesday morning, students were evacuated from Gosford Gate accommodation following a kitchen fire that had happened on the third floor of the six-storey building.
Credit: Vesta Balazeckyte
999 crews from Binley, Foleshill, and Canley fire stations were called to the scene and stayed hours putting out the fire. Medics also rushed to the student building, and fortunately, there were no casualties.
West Midlands Fire Service has updated their Twitter in accordance to the situation.
Covfeed has spoken to a student living at Gosford Gate about their experience and how they felt the fire was handled.
The resident details that at first, she assumed the initial fire alarm was a false one as there are regular tests carried out.
“I didn’t really have a reaction”
However, after being told that there was a fire, her and other students evacuated the building.
Listen below to hear about her full experience
The resident highlights that there could have been better measures taken in the overall infrastructure of the building.
“the fire started in the kitchen and (....) in this accommodation you can leave the oven on the whole night and it will not switch off ”
Covfeed has also spoken to the staff at the property and they were not able to speak on the incident.
However, with growing demand for student accommodation nationwide there are doubts from students that anything will be done.
Covfeed spoke to another university student who comments on her overall experience of student accommodation and her thoughts on the fire.
In this interview, she does not express much shock at the lack of the fire.
“I’m not surprised. Uni accommodation can be a bit (censored) and overpriced for what they are ”
The student goes onto discuss her disdain for the state of student housing across the UK as well as Coventry.
Listen to the rest of her experience below
A report written by the Higher Education Statistics Agency has found that 64% of students do not have access to student accommodation in Coventry.
This proves to be an increasing problem as Coventry has a relatively high student population.
Residents have expressed their frustrations with student accommodations too.
Especially those built in industrial areas far from the university campus and essentials such as parking, a place of worship, and even a pub for them to socialise.
This comes in the wake of the refusal of a plan for student accommodation that was to be built in the Canley area just this September.
What will be the future for student living here in Coventry?