Failure to ensure your business complies with fire safety regulations can lead to huge fines, under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England and Wales and similar legislation in other parts of the UK and the world.
In this roundup, you’ll see how five different cases led to businesses being ordered to pay over GB pound 80,000 in fines and costs combined. Can you afford to not comply?
B&B fire leads to suspended prison sentence
The owner of a bed and breakfast in Somerset was handed down a two-month suspended prison sentence at Bristol Crown Court on 21 June. Edward Smith, of Bridgwater Farm, Dundry, pleaded guilty to five charges of failing to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRO) 2005. He was also ordered to pay costs of GB pound 12,698.
Avon Fire & Rescue Service brought the prosecution after a fire at the premises in May 2012, which put lives at risk.
Smith failed to:
More information from Avon Fire & Rescue.
Hotel owners fined
A Lake District Travellers Rest Inn and Derek Sweeney, its director, were fined GB pound 9,000 plus GB pound 3,800 costs by Kendal magistrates for six breaches of fire safety regulations at a property in Grasmere used by staff working at the inn.
Cumbria County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service found there was:
More information from Cumbria County Council.
More rogue landlords
In a second prosecution brought by Avon Fire & Rescue Service at Bristol Crown Court on 21 June for breaches of the RRO, Garreth Wilson was given a four-month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay costs of GB pound 10,187. The sentence follows a fire at a house of multiple occupancy he owned in Cotham, Bristol, in January 2012, in which two women had to be rescued from the roof by firefighters.
The court heard that:
Judge Martin Picton said the situation was wholly unacceptable and that there is a huge obligation for landlords and business owners to ensure their premises are safe from fire.
More information from Avon Fire & Rescue.
Further landlord prosecution
Askar Miah was fined GB pound 36,000 by Southampton magistrates for putting his tenants and other residents at risk at a flat in Southampton where there was no working fire alarm, escape routes were blocked, and there was poor structural fire separation. He was also ordered to pay costs of GB pound 3,816.
More information from Southampton City Council.
Fines for importation of flammable furniture
Five North of England firms were fined for the importation, manufacture, and supply of falsely-labelled beds and sofas that failed flammability tests conducted by West Yorkshire Trading Standards.
Test reports highlighted multiple failures and escalating combustion, with many of the samples needing to be forcibly extinguished.
I-Sleep was fined a total of GB pound 2,200, its sole director Wajid Hussain GB pound 2,200, franchisers Foxton Furniture GB pound 600 and Goole Furnishings GB pound 500, and importer Piotr Fleczak GB pound 400 by Kirklees magistrates.
Further information and a video from Dewsbury Reporter.
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By providing penalty to the criminal is the only way to build consciousness in people and avoid fire in future. Since the penalty amount is pretty big I dont think many companies will afford to pay such big penalty amount and thus they will be forced to comply.