Serious Fire Safety Breaches leads to Prosecution

Serious fire safety breaches have led to a Scarborough hotel being prosecuted. Owing to the poor safety conditions that were evident, a Prohibition Notice was issued that prevented the use of the upper floors. An enforcement notice for remedial work to be completed was served with a deadline date that was missed by two months.

Fire Safety Officers from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS) visited the building and identified a number of serious fire safety breaches, including:

• No suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment (FRA) had  been undertaken
• The existing fire alarm was inappropriate for the premises
  • it did not sound above the lower ground floor, meaning anyone sleeping in the rooms above ground floor would not have been alerted in the event of a fire
• Numerous defective fire doors
  • not fitted with self-closers
  • lack of intumescent strips and smoke seals (which would allow smoke and fire to enter into the means of escape impeding anyone’s evacuation from the building
• Fire doors held open with (what looked like) automatic hold open devices
  • these were not connected to the fire alarm system and so would remain open in the event of a fire
• There were fire separation issues in storage rooms that led to means of escape and which contained ignition sources
• There was inadequate routine maintenance or testing of the fire alarm, emergency lighting and firefighting equipment
• There was no training of staff including the manager

Further investigation by the fire safety officers resulted in charges against the building’s owners, Daniel Johns Ltd and the management company, Silver Hopkins Ltd.

Serious Fire Safety Breaches ends in fines. In February 2018, at Scarborough Magistrates Court, Daniel Johns Ltd and Silver Hopkins Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching sections 3 and 4 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005. Daniel Johns Ltd was fined £23,000 plus £2,485 costs and Silver Hopkins Ltd was fined £25,000 plus £2,485 costs and £120 victim surcharge.

After the hearing, NYFRS station manager Eddie Head said;

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service makes visits to premises when reports of poor fire safety standards are made to us. Depending on what is found appropriate advice will be given to the business, an informal action may be taken or in some cases such as this, the necessary enforcement action will be implemented.

In this case following the inspection, prohibition and enforcement notices were served. An investigation was conducted because the fire safety problems were numerous and serious. Neither of the responsible persons had not given sufficient thought to what might happen if a fire had occurred. Conducting or commissioning a fire risk assessment is the starting point for beginning to ensure that a building is or can be made safe for people in the event of a fire.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service will, in most cases, give responsible persons chance to comply with the legislation before taking legal proceedings. However, where there is a risk to life, of death or serious injury in the event of a fire, a prosecution will be considered and, where appropriate, taken. In this case, immediate action was followed by months of delay to put things right, and the seriousness of the failings meant that a prosecution was appropriate

Across the North Yorkshire and the City of York North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service find that many businesses and sole traders are proactive in managing their fire safety well. Sadly there are still too many occasions, like this case, where businesses are unaware or ignoring what they should be doing. As a service, we provide free fire safety advice to businesses and the public. We engage with various trade organisation and individual businesses to raise awareness of best practice around fire safety. I would welcome ideas from anyone and especially businesses and sole traders as to how we, as a service, can best reach out and deliver our important fire safety messages. Improving the standards of fire safety and fire safety management will reduce the risk of fire and help to keep individuals and businesses safer.

Serious Fire Safety Breaches endanger life and are bad for business.