6 ISSUE 15 • 2010 • WWW.FIA.UK.COM


separation in the building due to doors being wedged open.


Chard, Somerset


Two landlords were sentenced to a fi ne of £4,000 each and ordered to pay £8,000 costs at Taunton Crown Court. Ralph Ricardo and Alistair Gordon of Sarum Homes Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of a prohibition notice served on a property by Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Authority. Following an audit of the


property serious concerns regarding public safety were identifi ed and a prohibition notice was served preventing occupation. It was later found that the notice had been ignored and 13 people, including two children were living in the property. The property was in the


process of being renovated and the fi re safety measures were inadequate. The fi re alarm system and the emergency lighting system had not been commissioned and could not be relied on to operate in the event of a fi re, the structural fi re safety compartment had been breached, which would allow a fi re to quickly spread throughout the building.


Swiss Cottage, London


Camden Council recently prosecuted two companies and their director for managing a house which posed a serious fi re risk to its tenants and fi ned them more than £32,000. The two companies were found guilty of eight offences relating to the neglect of fi re safety precautions. The house, in Swiss Cottage, did not feature a fi re detection or alarm system, there were no fi re doors and potentially fl ammable materials were unsafely stored in cupboards. In addition the only smoke alarm in the property was not working and there were no escape


routes from the upper fl oors. The three-storey town house, designed to be occupied by one family, was let to seven tenants through two management companies, BP Associates Ltd and Blix Ltd. Alex Begun was a director of both companies.


Camden Council’s


enforcement team discovered the fi re risks after carrying out a detailed inspection and found it had been let as an HMO, but without planning consent.


Amendment


In the last edition of Focus we included Iceland Foods in Bulwell, Nottingham in ‘Named


& Shamed’. We have now discovered that the prosecution related to a fi re that occurred before the Fire Safety Order came into force and took place under Workplace Regulations and not the Fire Safety Order as stated. We apologise if this was in any way misleading.


LANDLORD JAILED AFTER A FIRE NEARLY KILLS A TENANT


andlord, Michael Billings was given a two and a half year prison sentence and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs following a fi re in a second fl oor apartment above a shop in Magdalen Street, Norwich where his tenant, 19 year old Layla Skalli almost lost her life. One other female tenant was rescued by the fi re service and further tenants climbed down a drainpipe to escape. In the case, brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, the court heard that Mr Billings failed to provide even the most basic protection for his tenants. He had not fi tted a working fi re alarm system, installed the correct number of fi re doors or provided adequate means of escape. Also the gas appliances in the fl ats had not been serviced or properly inspected. Miss Skalli, now aged 20, was in the fl at when fi re


L


broke out in the early hours of 14 April 2009 but she was unable to escape because her sash window could not be opened more than four inches and the staircase was blocked by thick black smoke. Her screams could be heard by her distressed neighbours. Firefi ghters used their ladder as a battering ram


to smash open the window and on entering the property they found Miss Skalli lying unconscious on the fl oor with her hands covering her face, the only part of her not burnt by the intense heat. The fi refi ghter who carried her down the ladder described her body as so hot that his arms were beginning to burn through his tunic. Miss Skalli suffered 80 per cent deep tissue burns


all over her body and virtually all the skin below her neck was destroyed by intense heat in the region of 600 degrees when the property became a raging inferno. The injuries that she suffered were so severe that she was not expected to survive. The case was treated as a potential


manslaughter and during sentencing Judge Paul Downes advised that he would review Mr Billings’s sentence if he paid £20,000 to Miss Skalli as a sign of remorse.


HSE Inspector John Claxton said – “This is the most distressing case I have worked on during my


31 years as an HSE inspector. The injuries and pain suffered by Miss Skalli were horrifi c. It is a testament to her huge character, spirit and determination that she is still alive today. “Michael Billings failed in his basic duties as a


landlord and those failures nearly cost the life of a young woman. As it is, Layla Skalli has been left with both physical and emotional scars that will never completely heal. A year on she still requires pain relief and she will need further surgery in the future. “When fi re broke out there was very little Layla could do, either to fi ght the fi re or escape its fl ames. This was a direct result of Michael Billings’s failure to act as a responsible landlord. “Landlords have duties under law to maintain


their properties and ensure they are safe places for their tenants to live. Michael Billings ignored these duties.” Richard Herrell, Group Manager at Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service said – “This is the fi rst time the fi re and rescue service has worked on a joint operation of this kind with the Health and Safety Executive, Norfolk Constabulary and Norwich City Council. This partnership proved to be hugely effective in what was a complex and diffi cult case. “This case has never been about interfering public bodies checking up on people for the sake of it – it’s about ensuring all properties where people live are safe. “And of course it has been about Layla Skalli,


who has shown quite extraordinary courage throughout what has been a most harrowing ordeal and we wish her well in the future.” Michael Billings was charged by the HSE with


four counts of breaching Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and one count of breaching regulation 36(3)(a) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. The fi rst four counts related to his four properties affected by the fi re.


He was also charged by Norfolk Fire and Rescue


Service with nine counts of breaching Article 31(1) of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The cause of the blaze has never been conclusively found.


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