SPRINKLERS will be fitted in three council tower blocks in Southampton after a coroner urged councils to act following the deaths of two firefighters.

The city council and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service have been working for several years on the plans to retrofit sprinklers at Shirley Towers, Albion Towers and Sturminster House.

Firefighters Jim Shears and Alan Bannon died in a blaze at Shirley Towers in 2010, and a coroner recommended social housing providers fit sprinklers to help prevent the tragedy happening again.

Tonight the city council's cabinet agreed spending £1m from the housing and revenue account on fitting the sprinklers.

The three blocks were chosen due to their "scissor" layout with separate floor levels, and work will now start this autumn.

Council housing boss Warwick Payne, who covered the Shirley Towers tragedy for the Daily Echo, said the new sprinklers would only be activated by heat, and not smoke, and would only come on in the areas affected by a fire.

He said: "This is not about making these buildings safe, it is about making them safer."