Health and Safety Consultants

Tesco has been fined £95,000 and ordered to pay over £34,000 in costs after pleading guilty to five breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The London Fire Brigade prosecuted Tesco after a fire started at their Colney Hatch Store in Barnet during October 2007.  The store was locked when they arrived and they had to attract the attention of a Tesco employee to gain access to the building.  The fire started in the staff kitchen and staff managed to put it out using fire extinguishers and a fire blanket.  Fire fighters had to ask staff to leave the premises several times.

An inspection of the premises the next day revealed a number of breaches of fire safety legislation. The fire risk assessment had not been reviewed, escape routes weren’t kept clear and many fire doors were wedged open.

Ron Dobson, London Fire Commissioner, said: “Fire safety is a key part of good business management and the general public should feel safe from fire when they are out shopping. London Fire Brigade will continue to take action when businesses, large or small, do not take their fire safety responsibilities seriously. Failure to comply with the law can, as this case has shown, result in a prosecution.”

New Look, a top high street clothing chain was fined a record £400,000 for breaching fire safety law after a fire started at their Oxford Street, London, branch. Allegedly, inadequate emergency exits and poor staff training led to staff failing to react to the fire alarm and allowing customers to continue shopping as the fire spread through the building.

It was reported that the fire alarm went off intermittently, but it was only when people walking passed the store shouted warnings, staff realised the seriousness of the problem and ordered everyone to leave. The emergency services were contacted by the store manager of the store opposite.

Joanne Weaver, one of the shoppers in the store when the fire started said “Staff within the shop did not seem to have a plan to evacuate people. They went from no cause for alarm, to panic”.

This is the biggest fine a company has received since the new fire safety legislation came into force in 2006.

Introduction

We are all aware that fire can be a killer, but even if no one is injured, a fire in the workplace can cause devastation to people’s lives. There are around 43,000 commercial property fires in the UK every year and 80% of companies that have a major fire go out of business within a year. Getting fire safety right is therefore essential to protect people’s lives and livelihoods.

Legal Requirements

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order requires a fire risk assessment to be made in premises other than domestic dwellings. The responsibility for conducting the fire risk assessment falls to the ‘responsible person’ – the person, or more usually the organisation, that has control of the premise, or part of the premise. Therefore, in a typical multi occupancy building, the Landlord or Building Manager would be responsible for the building as a whole and more particularly the communal areas, while each tenant of the building would be responsible for their own office or area. The fire risk assessment should be reviewed annually.

The Fire Safety Order also requires the ‘responsible person’ to have in place and maintain general fire safety precautions that will ensure people’s safety.

General Fire Safety Precautions

The ‘responsible person’ should ensure that:

• there are adequate means of escape – ways of safely getting out of the building or to some other safe place;
• there is some means of raising the alarm so that everyone in the building can get to a safe place in good time;
• where the risk is sufficiently high there is a means of early detection of any fire;
• the premise has fire resisting structures and fittings to ensure that fire does not compromise escape routes and is contained in one part;
• those people within the building are made aware of what actions they need to take in the event of a fire through training and signs.

It has to be ensured that the fire safety precautions operate efficiently and these precautions are maintained:

• An installed fire alarm has to be tested regularly – usually on a weekly basis. Any fire alarm and detection system should also be inspected at least every six months by a qualified engineer.
• Any installed emergency lighting should be tested regularly for function (usually monthly) and because they are fitted with a battery they should also have regular (at least annual) duration testing of the battery.
• Fire resisting doors (commonly called fire doors) should generally be kept closed (unless fitted with a door retainer which releases the door when the fire alarm is activated, and this has been subject to a risk assessment), and should be checked regularly that they are in good condition and that self closing devices operate correctly.
• Escape doors should be checked regularly to ensure that they open when needed and are not obstructed.

Employees should also be regularly trained in fire prevention, the actions to take on discovering a fire, and the actions to take upon hearing the fire alarm. This training should be reinforced through regular practice fire drills.

Fire can cause the death, disability and devastation in the work place. Make sure you do your best to prevent fires happening and to ensure that people can escape safely should a fire start.