Clothes retailer New Look has been ordered to pay a record £400,000 fine under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) following a blaze which destroyed its store on Oxford Street, central London.
The fire broke out in the second floor store room on 26 April 2007, while around 150 customers were in the shop. Though an alarm sounded, the fire was allowed to spread as staff ignored the warning and continued working. The alarm was mysteriously deactivated but even when it then went off again, staff didn’t react.
Firefighters received the first call about the fire from an adjacent office block before the shop’s security guard, who had not had any fire safety training, rang to report it.
The court heard that following warning shouts from passers-by, the shop’s workers began to panic and evacuated the store. By then smoke was pouring from the premises and customers, who were all ordered to leave by the main entrance, could feel the heat and hear the windows shattering above.
The London Fire Brigade said the delay in alerting them meant it took 30 fire engines and around 150 firefighters to tackle the flames, which had already caused the second floor windows to shatter, showering people below with shards of glass, by the time the emergency services arrived.
We are aware of increased activity by Fire Brigades and also local Environmental Health Officers in checking compliance with the Fire Safety Order. The FSO requires all employers to carry out an assessment of the risks to employees and others from fire and put adequate control measures in place to minimise the risks, ensure safe evacuation, etc.
But the brigade said the staff’s lack of training led to the delayed evacuation and meant they didn’t know how to react to a fire signal or how to empty the building correctly. They did not use the fire exits, which resulted in all the customers escaping through the front entrance directly under the fire.
The investigation also discovered storage blocking escape routes and all the basement fire exits were locked because of a failure of the interface between the swipe-card key system and the fire alarm. The key card system should have deactivated the doors when the alarm went off, but it wasn’t connected, and not all staff members were issued with swipe cards. They couldn’t even use the green emergency override switch because it was located on the wrong side of the doors.
Sentencing New Look at Southwark Crown Court on 25 November, the judge said its failures could have caused a "disaster almost too awful to contemplate".
The chain admitted two breaches of the FSO, for failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and not training staff in fire safety, and was fined £250,000 and £150,000 for the respective offences, with £136,052 costs.
Fire Risk Assessments, as with all assessments, should be reviewed annually. Clients who have not yet carried out a Fire Risk Assessment are advised to contact their consultant for advice.
Footnote:
From 6 April 2010, new regulations will clarify employers’ responsibilities to consider the capabilities of workers to carry out any fire safety-related tasks or assignments.
Employers will have to think about:
what a worker is able and unable to do when giving them tasks
how these capabilities may affect their ability to deal with fire-related risks
For example, you will have to consider a worker's capabilities as regards fire safety if you ask them to work with petrol.
These regulations simply re-impose a duty that:
you had before the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into force in October 2006
is implicit in your wider health and safety duties