News
Health & Safety Update (January 2010)
High street retailer receives record fine following blaze
The high street retailer New Look has been fined £400,000 and
ordered to pay £136,052 in costs after pleading guilty to serious
breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 – the
RRO. It is the largest fine to date under the RRO.
London Fire Brigade prosecuted New Look following a serious fire
at its Oxford Street store on 26 April 2007. Thirty fire engines
and around 150 firefighters were needed to tackle the blaze and
crews remained at the scene for the next three days.
The first call to the Brigade was from an office worker in an
adjacent building. This delay meant that when crews arrived the
fire had already developed and had broken through the second floor
windows. Despite the building's fire alarm sounding, it was reset
on at least one occasion.
Over 450 people were evacuated from the store and surrounding
premises. A significant amount of Oxford Street was closed to
traffic and the public, which resulted in businesses being closed
for a further two days after the blaze.
Following the fire, the Brigade carried out several fire safety
inspections at the premises and found a substantial number of
breaches of fire legislation. The most serious of these was an
inadequate fire risk assessment which was found to have a number of
failures, including no record of appropriate fire procedures, such
as the correct one to adopt when the fire alarm is activated.
The RRO requires the responsible person (in a workplace, the
employer) to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk
assessment and act on its findings.
Another significant breach was the insufficient training of
staff which led to a delayed evacuation of the premises and staff
being ill-prepared to respond to a fire or fire alarm signal. Staff
did not use the appropriate fire exits to evacuate the public,
which meant that approximately 150 people were evacuated through
the main entrance, which was directly underneath the fire on the
second floor.
Other serious deficiencies included all of the basement fire
exits being unavailable to members of staff and the public due to
the failure of an interface between the swipe card system and the
fire alarm. The swipe card system should have been connected to the
fire alarm system and have deactivated the doors. The premises were
also found to have significant storage in escape routes on all
floors.
You should carry out a fire risk assessment- A fire risk
assessment is an organised and methodical look at the premises, the
activities carried out there and the likelihood that a fire could
start and cause harm to those in and around the premises.
The aims of the fire risk assessment are to:
- identify the fire hazards,
- reduce the risk of those hazards causing harm to as low as
reasonably practicable.
- decide what physical fire precautions and management
arrangements are necessary to ensure the safety of people in your
premises if a fire does start.
We can offer fire risk assessments as an additional service. If
you are concerned about fire issues and risk assessment then
contact the advice line or your dedicated consultant for
guidance.