Terrified party guests had to run through thick smoke after discovering some of the fire exits blocked when a blaze broke out in the kitchen at a Dewsbury banqueting venue, a court heard.
Around 300 people were at the henna party organised by Mrs Asma Laher for her daughter at the Taj Banqueting Suite in the old library on Wellington Road on August 20 last year when the fire began.
It was then discovered the fire doors on both the ground and first floor were either locked or fastened shut.
Now two men who ran the business have been given suspended jail terms and their company fined £5,000.
Mrs Laher described how two of her cousins had tried unsuccessfully to open the one on the ground floor and the terror as family members struggled to escape.
Craig Hassall prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court where the two directors of the company were sentenced for breaching fire safety regulations that the fire apparently started when a gas supply hose was accidentally disconnected.
That happened in the kitchen area in the ground floor which was being used to warm food for the party. The gas from the hose ignited and then set fire to other things in the kitchen.
Flames then spread through a serving hatch into the main part of the ground floor of the three storey building.
“At one point it was feared by Mrs Laher that her wheelchair-bound mother was lost within the building,” said Mr Hassall. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were sent in to search the building for her but fortunately she was located outside.
A full fire safety inspection was carried out the following day once the premises had been damped down and ten breaches were found “such as to create a risk of death or serious injury.”
Mohammed Faraz one of the directors said later it had only been boarded up a few days previously following a break-in.
Khadim Al’Hassan representing Faraz and his fellow director and Mahfooz Hussain, said each had put £35,000 into the business which was their first business enterprise and had spent 18 months setting it up.
It was only their second event when the fire broke out. They had borrowed money to set up the business and wrongly thought the fire safety system was satisfactory given it had previously been run as a library.
Faraz, 29 of Savile Road, Dewsbury and Hussain, 30 of Ouzelwell Crescent, Thornhill Lees, Dewsbury admitted failing to comply with the requirements and each was given a nine month prison sentence suspended for two years with 240 hours unpaid work.
Their company Taj Banqueting was fined £5,000.
