Hotel Fined for Fire Safety Failures

Hotel Fined for Fire Safety Failures

A hotel and its general manager have been ordered to pay out more than £40,000 in fines and costs after a blaze led to the discovery of numerous fire safety failures at the premises. Park Hotel Limited and its manager, Ashwin Ratan, pleaded guilty to ten offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, in a prosecution by Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service.

The court heard that the problems at The Park Hotel – a bed and breakfast housed in a Victorian-styled building in Leicester city centre – came to light following a fire in August 2009. It was found that no one employed by the hotel initiated a formal evacuation procedure when the fire alarm sounded, but rather residents had to evacuate themselves informally. Given the extensive smoke logging, this could have been extremely serious and resulted in serious injury or death to a number of residents.

In addition, the fire alarm could not be heard in the basement area of the premises, where the on-site staff lived. They were unaware of the fire until one of the residents went down to the basement to warn them. It was also established that, on the evening of the fire, the general manager had decided it was not necessary to have a night porter on duty between the hours of midnight and 7am – a decision that was taken in order to cut costs.

A post-fire inspection of the premises revealed other failures, including: the fire risk assessment was inadequate; none of the fire doors in the building were fitted with intumescent strips or cold smoke seals, and some were wedged open; and a number of the wooden steps to the rear fire escape were either loose or partially rotten in places. Park Hotel Limited was fined £29,715 with £8,000 costs, while Mr Ratan was fined £2,985 with £380 costs.

Fire Protection Association