We are delighted to announce that we have reached ‘Elite System Integrator’ (ESI) status within the Gent 24 Network in recognition of our continued success within the UK fire industry.
Business Manager for the Midlands, Neil Towers is seen awarding Graham Turner and Marie Griffiths with a plaque and cake during a recent presentation at our Dudley Head Office.
All at Bryland Fire Protection Limited look forward to building on our existing partnership with Honeywell Gent.’
Tenants living in dangerous conditions
A survey of landlords has found that hundreds of thousands of tenants are living in unsafe housing with missing smoke or carbon monoxide alarms as landlords aren’t meeting obligations on repairs that they are responsible for.
The data, collected by ComRes on behalf of Citizens Advice, found that a quarter of landlords failed to make sure there’s a smoke alarm on every floor of their properties and a further 26% failed to carry out annual gas safety work.
According to the report, 90,000 homes do not have a working carbon monoxide alarm, despite this being regulation, and one in six tenants say the disrepair in their home was causing a ‘major threat to their health and safety.’
ComRes is calling for a national housing body for private renting to set standards, which could include creating a home “MOT”, setting a “fit-and-proper-person” test for landlords and standardising rental contracts.
Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said. “Too many private renters live in hazardous homes – often with dangerous flaws.
“The government must establish a national housing body to ensure landlords let property that meet legal standards and gives renters the support they need when they don’t.”
75% of landlords agreed a single national housing body responsible for setting standards would improve the quality of their work, with nearly half of them saying they were unaware there were potential fines for not checking carbon monoxide and smoke alarms were in working order.
Original Source
Citizens Advice
Tenants concerned
Work to maintain and service fire alarms at a high-rise building in Margate, Kent, is being delayed further, despite an enforcement notice being handed to the landlord.
The enforcement notice was handed to the landlord of Arlington House by Kent Fire and Rescue Service, letting them know that serious improvements needed to be made to fire safety or further action would be taken.
The building’s management service, Trinity Estates, is being forced to pay back over £100,000 to tenants after they claim to be paying maintenance and service fees without any work being completed.
According to residents, fire doors do not close properly and fire alarm systems are showing faults.
Trinity Estates commented, “Trinity are currently working with the landlord and the local fire authority to take steps to resolve the issues identified. A surveyor has been engaged, a scope of works has been prepared and tenders for the works received.
“The works required should commence in due course and we are continually in discussion with all parties.”
The landlord has until the beginning of October to comply with the order.
Original Source
ITV
Follows the death of two residents
The owner of the Newgrange Care Home in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire has pleaded guilty to five offences against fire safety legislation after two of the residents died in a fire.
Newgrange of Cheshunt Ltd was fined £175,000 concurrent and ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge, plus prosecution costs.
The five counts each involved an admission that the owner breached their duty imposed by fire safety law and that the breaches were such that they put the residents of the care home at risk of death or serious harm.
In 2017 an electrical fault caused a fire to break out which spread to the roof space. At the time 35 elderly residents were in the home, 30 were not independently mobile and five were over 100 years old. Thirty-three were rescued by the fire service but Daphne Holloway, aged 88, and Ivy Spriggs, 91, both died.
Newgrange expressed its profound regret that someone in its care should be harmed, let alone lose their life and the judge accepted that before this incident there had been a good health and safety record. However, he pointed out that there had been a complete failure to consider or concentrate on the safety of residents, as opposed to the safety of employees.
Hertfordshire’s Chief Fire Officer Darryl Keen said: “This incident highlights the need for all business owners to ensure that they fully comply with fire safety legislation. If enough competent staff had been present and properly trained to carry out long-established and recognised guidance on evacuations in a care home, I am sure that a full evacuation would have been started long before our arrival.”
He continued, “Evacuation of a care home is a difficult task and needs to be properly considered and practiced so that everyone can escape unharmed. We continue to advocate the fitting of sprinkler or other fire suppression systems, particularly to any building where the occupants suffer from mobility issues.”
Source
Eight safety breaches
An enforcement notice has been handed to London Bridge tube station after fire safety breaches were found in an assessment by London Fire Brigade (LFB).
Violations included failure to provide suitable fire warning methods, failure to review fire risk assessment, failure to provide employees with ‘relevant information and failure to provide ‘adequate and clearly indicated’ emergency routes that lead to a place of safety.
The breaches covered eight articles of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Transport for London (TfL) commented on the notice, claiming safety was a ‘top priority’ and they would be addressing all the issues outlined by LFB.
“Safety is always our top priority, and we work closely with London Fire Brigade to ensure that our stations are safe for our customers and staff,” a TfL spokesman said.
“We have met with them to discuss the issues that they identified and have taken urgent steps to address all of them.”
TfL have until 5 June to comply with the measures set out in the notice.
Original Source
LFB
‘No regard’ for safety of tenants
Serial offender, landlord Jack Collins, has been fined £20,000 after being found guilty of failing to protect the safety of his tenants.
He was prosecuted by Leeds City Council and appeared at the local magistrates court, charged with a variety of charges related to the ‘disgraceful state’ of his rental properties in the Beeston area.
Among a number of offences, Mr Collins was found guilty of failing to maintain a working fire alarm system; failure to ensure a means of escape was kept clear; and failing to keep a proper escape route in good order for his tenants.
He was fined £14,000 in February last year for similar offences in relation to two other properties.
The Magistrates Panel said: “Mr Collins, you own 10 properties, your business is in housing people. It’s apparent you are deficient in this role/business.”
Collins was fined £17,500 and ordered to pay the prosecutions costs of £2,446.50 plus a victim surcharge of £170. He told the court that he had been unhappy with the quality of work from contractors and felt he had to do the work himself, but had been suffering ill health.
Original sources
The Engineer that attended site was very professional and prompt. He resolved all of the issues we had even though this was his first time to the site. He was highly efficient, worked in a speedy manner, and kept us up to date with his findings. As well as being dynamic, he worked in a sympathetic manner around our team of people operating in the factory.
The engineer is an asset to the Bryland Fire and we would have him back in a heartbeat.
New homes sold without vital fire protection.
Although building regulations require, by law, that new homes are built with fire protection measures to delay the spread of fire and allow crucial time for escape, new-build homes have been found with missing or incorrectly installed fire barriers.
An investigation from the BBC found that Persimmon Homes and Bellway Homes sold houses without vital fire protection.
Serious breaches were undetected during construction, leaving homes and lives potentially at risk if a fire breaks out.
In some cases, a lack of fire barriers contributed to the spread of flames that have destroyed homes, such as in April 2018 when a fire started from a cigarette being dropped spread to the adjacent houses in Exeter.
A further 650 homes from Persimmon were found in the South West with missing or incorrectly installed fire barriers.
Similarly, after a fire took hold in a block of Bellway Homes flats in Kent, an investigation was carried out that found breaches in every property it checked.
Surveyor and expert witness Greig Adams, who carried out the testing, found poorly fitted fire barriers with voids and gaps around them that would prevent them from stopping a fire from spreading.
“What we’ve unfortunately found is that there are fire breach issues in every house we’ve looked at. It’s a legal requirement that the cavity barriers are to be there. It’s not optional- and with good reason: it saves lives”
Both companies said they are committed to improvement and that remedial works are being carried out currently.
Original Source
BBC
‘Serious’ fire safety failings
A care home in South London has been fined £90,000 plus more than £15,000 in costs after it was found guilty of breaching fire safety regulations, following the death of an elderly woman.
Back in 2015, a fire broke out in a room at Wood House Care Home in Tooting, London, killing a 78-year-old pensioner through severe burning.
The care home was closed shortly after the fire.
After the fire, London Fire Brigade (LFB) investigated the venue and found a series of safety concerns. The fire risk assessments carried out by the home were the main concern and it was found to not adequately reflect the premises or the ‘no smoking’ policy, and not considering the specific risk of individuals.
London Fire Brigade’s Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety, Dan Daly said, “The fire risk assessment did not adequately reflect the fact that [some residents] were at serious risk in the event of a fire.
“There were serious breaches of fire safety and measures to safeguard the wellbeing of resident[s] could have been put in place easily and quickly and at little cost.
“Carers need to look at the individual needs of the people they look after and incorporate fire risk into the care planning process.
“A person-centred fire risk assessment is essential. If this had been in place then this tragic case could have avoided.”
The company who owned the care home, Gold Care Consultancy Ltd, were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court.
Original Source
London Fire Brigade
