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£20K Fine Plus Costs For Breach Of Fire Safety Order
What You Can Do Before The Fire Authority Flex Their Enforcement Muscles
A Cheshire recycling company which pleaded
guilty to five offences under fire safety legislation has been fined
£20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000, The Chief Fire
Officers Association reports. Centrol Recycling Group of Widnes, Cheshire,
had been charged with eight offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire
Safety Order) 2005 after fire safety staff found serious fire risks
during an inspection in February this year.
At Runcorn Magistrates Court the company pleaded guilty to five offences as well as accepting a formal caution prior to the hearing for the other three offences. The court heard that fire safety inspectors toured the site in the company of the yard manager and found:
- An external staircase seriously obstructed with bales of paper and with a number of gas cylinders nearby
- Fire exit doors which could not be opened or were heavily obstructed
- Exit routes which were heavily obstructed and had no lighting or signs
- Combustible material stored against a boundary fence of an adjacent tanker storage area.
- No means of raising the alarm in the event of a fire in the main baling shed
- Fire extinguishers had either been discharged or were empty.
After the hearing, Deputy Chief Fire Officer
Mark Cashin said he was pleased that the court had recognised the seriousness
of the offences.
"We take our responsibilities under the fire safety regulations extremely seriously and always work hard with local businesses to try to find the right solutions," he said.
"In serious cases like this, however, we will use our powers to enforce the regulations and prosecute offenders.
"Today's case is the first one to be brought by ourselves under the new Fire Safety Order and we hope that it serves as a message to companies."
What can you do?
- Make sure that you know the law
- Carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment
- Put a procedure in place to action the findings of the assessment
- Make sure you communicate the relevant findings to your staff, and make sure they are trained and competent to understand what is asked of them
- Regularly check and review the assessment to make sure it is still valid
- Record the results of all fire protection equipment
Optimal Risk Control With Ark
Top brand clients work with Ark Workplace
Risk to optimise their control and management of risk.
You can work with Ark to...
- Audit the effectiveness of your existing systems.
- Develop and optimise your management policy and procedures
- Carry out the fire appropriate risk assessments
- Keep your staff trained.
