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A new guidance document on fire safety for blocks of flats has been published 

Oxfordshire nursing home evacuated after blaze 

Schools 

Contract conducted under an existing agreement' by approved contractor 

Reasonable to charge for previous fire safety failings? 

Wedding castle warned about fire safety three weeks before blaze 

Furniture warehouse convicted after ‘critical’ fire safety breaches 

Hotel gets fire service inspection after complaint from consultant 

Rosepark care home fire deaths avoidable says inquiry report 

Scottish building regulations concerning care homes have also been amended since the fire 

Click on the links to see more details

Hotel pays £260,000 in landmark fire safety trial 09 February 2012 

Fire safety breaches found in Lambeth council-run buildings

11th Jan 2012 

Changes to Devon & Somerset fire log changes could hide cuts, says union 11th Jan 2012 

Somerset museum could be forced to close due to fire safety breaches

11th Jan 2012 

Bridegroom charged with arson after 100 firefighters battle blaze at historic castle 

Building managers fined £100,000 after failing to act on fire risk assessment 

Fire risk assessor and hotel manager jailed for fire safety offences 

Hotels 

Bed & Breakfast pay thousands 

Commercial properties risk heavy fines 

Indian restaurant owner ordered to pay over £4,000 for FSO breaches 

Hotel pays £260,000 in landmark fire safety trial

09 February 2012

A London hotel has had to pay more than £260,000 in fines and costs in what is believed to be the first jury trial of a case under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The Chumleigh Lodge Hotel Limited and its sole director, Michael Wilson, had pleaded not guilty to a total of 12 offences under the Fire Safety Order. The trial took place at Blackfriars Crown Court between 28 November and 6 December 2011 and sentencing was on Monday 6 February.

The offences date back to 18 May 2008 when London Fire Brigade was called to a fire at the hotel on Nether Street in Finchley, north London. The blaze had spread quickly from a first floor guest bedroom, up a staircase to the floor above and along a corridor.

Three people escaped from the fire, two by using the stairs and a third by climbing out of a second floor window.

Following the blaze, fire safety inspectors visited the hotel and raised a number of concerns. These included defective fire doors, blocked escape routes and no smoke alarms in some of the hotel’s bedrooms. Mr Wilson was also unable to produce a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and was found not to have provided staff with adequate fire safety training.

The fine was divided between the individual defendant, Michael Wilson (£180,000) and the corporate defendant, Chumleigh Lodge Hotel Limited (£30,000). The defendants were further ordered to pay prosecution costs of £50,000, and compensation of £2,000 to the guest who escaped through a second floor window.

The company was found guilty of six offences, while Mr Wilson was found guilty of ‘consent or connivance in the commission’ of those same offences:

Failure to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risk (article 9)

Failure to provide staff with adequate safety training (article 21)

Failure to ensure emergency routes from the premises are kept clear (article 14)

Failure to adequately equip premises with fire detectors (article 13)

Two counts of failure to ensure premises, facilities, equipment or devices are maintained in an efficient state, in working order and in good repair (article 17)

“Business owners have a clear responsibility under fire safety law to ensure that both the public and their employees are as safe as possible from the risk of fire,” said Brian Coleman, chairman of London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. “This verdict sends out a clear message that if these responsibilities are ignored we will not hesitate in prosecuting and people will face serious penalties.”

Contract conducted under an existing agreement' by approved contractor

A spokesman from Riverside said that the contract was conducted under the Official Journal of the European Community procurement rules and that “in order to save both time and costs” in undergoing a separate tender process, it was taken using an existing agreement by Fusion 21 - which sourced building services company, Top Notch.

Private lease-holders have also been offered the opportunity to retrospectively stagger their payments to the Housing Association over a period of 15 years, the company said.

But the situation has led to a stalemate, with residents saying they are taking a line of ‘no cooperation’ with the housing association.

The company plan to have works completed by March 2012, with an outside limit set by the fire service for December 2012.

Reasonable to charge for previous fire safety failings?

Riverside’s properties are made up of more than 20 different archetypes including flats, maisonettes and terrace houses.

Build dates for the properties vary widely from 1918 through to the 1970s, the association said.

Earlier this month, in an unrelated story titled: ‘Residential landlords - profiteering or genuine fire safety upgrades?’ David Sugden, chair of the Passive Fire Protection Federation,  asked whether it was reasonable for building owners to charge the cost of previous fire safety failings to tenants as ‘improvements’ to fire safety.

Schools

Posted by Intime at 12:00, October 11th 2011.

Fire Safety Prosecutions - School Prosecuted and Fined for Fire Safety Breaches The governing body of St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, has been successfully prosecuted by Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority for breaching fire safety regulations.

The school was fined a total of £8,000 - a £2,250 fine and also ordered to pay the prosecution costs of £5,750.

Several articles of the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 were breached, including failure to take general fire precautions, failure to appoint fire wardens plus a failure to adequately implement the findings of a fire risk assessment.

The District Judge at Wycombe Magistrates Court said the breaches reflected 'serious failings by the school' and stressed that no action had been taken by the governing body for a number of months in order to improve fire safety standards at the school