Fire warning to companies

Jan 5 2009 by Andrew Hirst, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

The fire service is warning failure to conform to health and safety fire regulations can lead to major fires, ANDREW HIRST reports

A NEWSAGENT turned his business into a virtual steel coffin.

He had gone to such extreme lengths to protect his Kirklees business from thieves and vandals, his family would never escape if the building ever caught fire.

The steel bars on the windows and a steel door barring the main entrance locked from the outside saw to that.

That left only one other escape route through the back door – and if the fire was there they would be hopelessly trapped.

This is just one of the extreme cases seen by fire safety inspectors in the area – but there are other examples of how people’s lives are in terrible danger in these days of seemingly endless health and safety legislation.

The onus is now on businesses to do their own health and safety precautions, with fire safety experts visiting every few years to check they are sticking to the legislation.

New legislation a couple of years ago, called the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, brought 50 separate pieces of fire safety legislation together, and now each business must have a nominated responsible person who needs to be sure the company adheres to the law.

This covers smoke detectors, fire doors, evacuation procedures and staff training. In short, most of it is little more than good common sense.

If they don’t, there’s no excuse.

And in the aftermath of any fire, a thorough investigation is carried out and if the business is found to have failed to have legal fire safety measures in place, company bosses face prosecution.

If there was a blaze in a nightclub leading to deaths and the fire alarm system was found to be faulty or fire doors were locked, then the owners would face exceptionally serious criminal charges.

Court cases happen.

This year alone the fire safety team based at Huddersfield fire station has completed 64 preliminary investigations into serious fire safety breaches – and seven have ended up in court.

The buck stops with the employer and they face big fines or a possible jail term.

Richard Hoyle, Fire Safety District Manager for Kirklees, said: “We do still go to businesses who have done absolutely nothing about fire safety and these range from large offices to small companies with only a couple of people working there.

‘‘Where that is the case we will investigate and we will prosecute.

“Ignorance in the eyes of the law is not an excuse. They should know about health and safety.

“One was a large bakery in a three-storey building with communal ovens and a large number of people working.

“The owner could not see the need for a fire alarm system. We had to go down the enforcement route to make sure they got one installed.”

In another strange case a firm tested its fire alarms before the machinery was running. When production was going on, no-one could hear them. Alarms need to be five decibels above background noise.

If people wear ear protectors then the company will need strobe lighting.

The usual charge for those who end up in court is failure to comply with an Enforcement Notice.

There are five levels of enforcement, with prohibition the most serious where the fire danger is so great the premises are closed immediately.

The next is an Enforcement Notice where fire safety experts detail what is wrong, how to put it right and set a timescale for the work to be done. If the owners fail, then they face prosecution.

The third is an Action Plan when the fire safety experts point out what’s wrong and the responsible person agrees to do the work. If they fail, it moves up to the enforcement stage.

The lesser ones are goodwill advice which pick up on minor faults and the responsible person agrees to do them and the fire chiefs take their word on that. It could be as simple as a fire door that’s sticking.

The fifth is if the premises passes with flying colours and all the findings are simply recorded.

Inspections are risk-based which means if a company fails to do work or comes to the inspectors’ attention, they will be visited more often.

Places where people sleep such as hotels, are seen as potential high risk and are visited yearly.

Businesses always get five weeks’ written warning about a visit to give them time to make sure they have fully understood their requirements under the law.

Huddersfield fire station’s safety department has eight staff and covers 15,000 commercial premises.

Mr Hoyle, 45, who comes from Meltham, added: “The chances of winning the lottery are 14m-to-one, but people still buy a ticket believing they can win.

“The chances of a fire are far less than that, yet people think it will never happen to them. But it does happen to someone. Perhaps its just human nature.”