A company running a hostel for asylum seekers has been ordered to pay more than £10,000 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to two offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Angel Services (UK) Ltd was convicted of failing to review and keep up to date a fire risk assessment for the Angel Lodge hostel in Wakefield, and failing to maintain the detection and alarm system.
Wakefield Magistrates Court heard that the only way to raise the alarm at the hostel would have been to shout ‘fire’, but many of the residents did not speak English.
Prosecuting, Sarah Dimmock of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said the maintenance manager at hostel had told the company about a fault in the detection and alarm system on eight separate occasions.
She said that normally only one member of staff was on duty at night for 220 residents. Had a fire occurred, the fact that the alarm was not working would have been “disastrous”.
“Alerting residents by word of mouth by shouting ‘fire’ would have been the only option and could have resulted in panic,” she told the court.
District Judge Marie Mallon fined the company £6,600 (£3,300 for each offence) and ordered it to pay £4,445 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
The offences took place before Angel Lodge closed in March of this year after government funding had been cut, according to the Wakefield Express.
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