Norwich HMO landlord fined £20,000 for breaching fire safety regulations
The manager of a house in multiple occupation has been fined over £20,000 for breaching fire safety regulations.
53 year-old, Abdul Bashir was manager of the Prince of India restaurant on the ground floor and members of staff lived in the flats above. Mr Bashir pleaded guilty to the charges at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on Friday 28th October.
The breaches were discovered when an inspection was carried out by Norwich City Council on 9 February 2011. Investigators found that Mr Bashir had failed to provide adequate escape routes, fire doors and fire alarms.
Mr Bashir was fined £4,500 for each charge, totalling £18,000 and was also ordered to pay costs of £2,200.
Luke Parker at Norwich City Council, said: “These are serious breaches primarily relating to fire safety, which the council considers unacceptable. The prosecution was brought because he has a history of failing to maintain living conditions in a safe and proper manner at this property. He has been warned about conditions before but failed to improve and maintain the means of escape in case of fire. The aggravating factors are the number of occupants at risk from fire and living in poor conditions, and the length of time occupants were exposed to this risk.
Otis Hernandez, private sector housing officer for Norwich City Council, said: “The result sends out an important message to people that the council will take action against those whose negligence puts others at risk. That a fine so close to the maximum was handed out demonstrates the seriousness of these offences.”
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that you: ‘must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed’
This means that all companies as a first point in their Fire Safety must complete a Fire Risk Assessment. This must be carried out by a competent person, who is trained to perform risk assessments. Your Fire Training needs, your fire extinguisher needs and any other fire safety related issues you will need to address will be highlighted from the Fire Risk Assessment.
Our team of experienced and qualified Fire Risk Assessors will perform a full Fire Risk Assessment of your premises, and provide you with a comprehensive document detailing the risks found and recommendations to minimise the risks.
£30,000 fine for fire safety breach landlords
Two commercial property landlords in Manchester have been fined £30,000 for breaching fire safety regulations.
Suhail Sawar and Tariq Sawar were found guilty of the offences at Manchester City magistrates’ court.
An investigation had shown that the two multi occupancy properties in Derby Road had insufficient emergency lighting, fire alarms and a sufficient fire risk assessment had not been carried out.
Suhail Sawar was fined £17,500 and £3,365 costs, and his father, Tariq Sawar was fined £7,500 and ordered to pay £2,480 costs.
Peter O’Reilly from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue said: “It was made clear to these two men that they alone were the responsible individuals for ensuring the fire safety of people in the respective buildings they owned. They comprehensively failed to do this, despite enforcement notices being issued.”
£13,000 fine for fire safety breaches
The owner of a property in London, has been ordered to serve 150 hours community service and to pay £13,000 in court costs after being found guilty of a string of offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Mr Saif Ahmed appeared at Tower Bridge magistrates’ court after fire safety officers inspected his property in Camberwell 2009.
Steve Turek, Assistant commissioner said: “It is essential that building owners understand their responsibilities under fire safety law. London Fire Brigade works hard to ensure individuals and companies understand their responsibilities under fire safety law and only uses prosecution as a last resort but this verdict sends out a clear message that if they ignore fire safety then they will face serious penalties.”
Mr Ahmed was found guilty of 7 safety breaches including insufficient fire alarms, emergency lighting and escape routes.
Half of UK fire deaths happened in buildings fitted with fire alarms
A recent report has shown that around 80% of buildings in the UK are fitted with smoke alarms.
Despite this fact, almost half of fire deaths in buildings last year happened in a building that had working smoke alarms. It is a known fact that many people disable their alarms if they go off frequently and then forget to replace the batteries.
Most fires in the home start in the kitchen and many have some involvement with alcohol. Rob Davies, from West Midlands fire and rescue service, said: “About 60% of house fires are caused by fires in the kitchen. But when you come onto fatalities and fire deaths, it’s slightly different. In fact, with 40% of fire fatalities there has been some involvement with alcohol.”
Sheila Merrill from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said that often, people who lost their lives in a fire in their home had not heard the fire alarms due to being in a deep sleep because of alcohol or medication. |Another contributing factor to these deaths is that although fire alarms are fitted, escape exits have not been planned. Ms Merrill said: “In some instances, they could have heard the alarm but their exit out of the house is actually blocked by the fire, so they’re still unable to get out. And what we have to remember is that nine times out of 10, it’s not the fire that kills you, it’s the smoke.”
The Governments chief fire and rescue adviser said: “Simple checks such as closing doors every night and avoiding overloaded plugs will help reduce the risk in the home. If the worst should happen, everyone should make sure they are prepared and have an established and practiced escape route in place,” he said.
It is important to ensure that your smoke alarms are working and The Fire Training Academy encourage you to get into the habit of testing your alarms every Tuesday. Join us on Facebook and Twitter to get your weekly ‘Test it Tuesday’ reminders.
Essex businesses reminded over fire alarm response changes
Office and factory owners in Essex have been warned that from today there will be no response by Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) to automatic fire alarms.
The decision to reduce the response with regards to business premises has been made in order to lower the risks to the public by concentrating resources on emergency situations.
Fire crews will not respond to certain calls which come from automatic alarms in these business premises, or 999 calls where the person on the phone in telephone kiosks hangs up.
ECFRS hope that they will be able to improve their response service to homes in the area after they revealed that 97 percent of these automatic fire alarm cases are false.
Chief fire officer David Johnson expects resources to be utilised more effectively, placing the fire safety initiative back on commercial and industrial businesses to look after their own alarms.
He said:
“I am sure that home owners and businesses would rather our fire crews and appliances are ready to respond to their real emergencies, rather than them not being available because they are sitting outside factories or offices dealing with yet another of the thousands of false alarms that the service gets on a yearly basis.”
Flyers have been sent out to all businesses in the county explaining to them about the new system and warning them of their responsibility in maintaining their alarm systems more effectively.