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Wedding castle warned about fire safety three weeks before blaze
Posted by Intime at 01:35, January 17th 2012.
The management of Peckforton Castle in Cheshire, which last week suffered a serious fire affecting three floors, had been alerted to concerns over fire safety at the hotel just three weeks before the blaze. Fire safety consultant Alan Cox wrote to the hotel after staying there last month. Among his concerns were fire doors with hold open devices removed, poorly fitting fire doors, fire doors without smoke seals, cable penetrations not sealed, queries on the siting and/or absence of a number of smoke detectors, and concerns over the large number of candles being used.
Around 70 guests were evacuated from the building when the fire broke out just before 5.00am on Sunday 19 June. At its height 100 firefighters tacked the blaze, which took most of the day to bring under control. Around a quarter of the castle was damaged in the fire. A man, believed to be a bridegroom of a wedding party staying at the hotel, has been charged with two counts of arson and is due to appear at Chester Crown Court on 26 July.
Responding to the points raised by Mr Cox, a spokesperson for Peckforton Castle said:
“Following Mr Cox’s correspondence Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service undertook a full
audit of Peckforton Castle’s fire safety arrangements on 6 June 2011. It was judged
that the issues were not major life risk concerns and the fire service concluded
that with a few changes, Peckforton Castle would more than comply with the Regulatory
Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005, and it was agreed no further inspections were necessary.
“Alterations needed were some additional fire detection arrangements in one corridor of the hotel, an improvement in the condition of the sandstone stairs and some minor fire door and structural defects.”
The spokesperson added that none of these points had any bearing on the cause or spread of the fire, and that the issues featured in Mr Cox’s letter were in a separate section of the castle.
“The fire was contained within one room of the castle and only the rooms above the source of the fire were damaged. This would not have been the case should Peckforton Castle had had inadequate fire safety arrangements – after all the biggest test to any fire safety arrangements is surely a fire!”
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that they had visited the hotel on 6 June after receiving a copy of Mr Cox’s letter, but that the visit revealed only “a few minor issues”, and that they were not significant enough to organise a revisit. A fire service spokesperson said: “The hotel’s fire plans and evacuation procedures worked well when the fire broke out, which is why firefighters were not required to rescue anyone from the property, despite the fact many were asleep when it broke out. The make up of the building, including the fire doors, helped significantly to reduce the spread of fire.
“Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service takes the safety of the public seriously. We have robust checking procedures and have in the past closed and fined hotels for a breach of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order. This was not needed in the case of Peckforton Castle Hotel.