A fire and rescue service has successfully prosecuted a landlord for failing to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which put the lives and safety of residents and employees at risk.
The landlord, Angela Chang, pleaded guilty for six breaches at the properties in Lancashire.
In March 2021 fire safety officers inspected the properties and issued a Prohibition Notice on the flats above the premises. The flats were occupied at the time by several employees, a family of three and a builder undertaking work on the premises.
The six offences to which Chang pleaded guilty were: Failure to take such general fire safety precautions so as to ensure the safety of tenant; Failure to make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment; Failure to ensure that the premises were equipped with appropriate fire detectors and alarms; Failure to ensure that people could evacuate the premises as quickly and safely as possible; Failure to properly maintain an appropriate fire evacuation procedure for the premises; and Failure to safeguard the safety of relevant persons by ensuring that any facilities, equipment and devices provided.
These breaches posed a serious threat to the life and safety of the tenants and anyone else who may visit the property.
As a result, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service prosecuted Chang for her failure to comply with the fire safety order and the prohibition notice and she pleaded guilty last December.
This month sentencing took place at Preston Crown Court where Chang was sentenced to three months imprisonment for failure to comply with the above articles of the Fire Safety Order and she was also ordered to pay £10,414 in costs to Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service.
Ian Armistead, Protection Department Group Manager for Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, says: “Ms Angela Chang is the responsible person for these premises, and as such has a legal duty to ensure that people who use her premises are provided with a safe environment. We hope that this prosecution will ensure that the standard of her properties is kept within the requirements of the law.
“In our constant drive to make Lancashire safer, our fire safety enforcement teams are always actively seeking out other dangerious premises. We would hope that the outcome of this particular case where a custodial sentence has been issued, sends a clear message that fire safety must always be a priority. In this instance the consequences of the inadequate fire safety measures and inadequate management could have led to serious injury or loss of life and circumstances left us with no other option but to take this action.
“Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service will always work with those willing to address fire safety issues and businesses can be assured that we will continue to support them in complying with the Fire Safety Order.
“We would urge landlords and responsible persons who need to take action to comply with fire safety regulations to visit the Business Safety section of our website, which contains advice and guidance on how to comply with your legal duties.”
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Good! Unusual for the Fire Service to prosecute, but in this case she deserves jail time. 👍. Risking people’s lives is serious and ignoring a Prohibition Order is asking for trouble. I am actually surprised that she got such a light sentence.
Risking lives to make a quick buck 💰💰 lock her up 👮🏻♀️
Wonder if this would have happened if it had been a social housing provider?
Of course it would not you only have to look at Grenfell to see that, councils and social housing providers are above the law in these matters
Surprise surprise
Of course not, when a criminal council failed to have gas safety inspections and certificates for six years puting three thousand tenants lives in danger nothing was done no action at all, they just said
'lessons have been learned". this tells you everything you ever needed to know about british justice
Norwich City council was guilty of that and then tried to pass the buck to the contractors
Based in Blackpool and above a chippy, be wise to have your fire stuff in order, should be locked up for longer.
Well it’s all very well at face value but I didn’t read about anything actually happened to anyone or died in a fire and didn’t read there was a fire.
No one jailed for Grenfell where 72/73 people died hard to tell from the ashes and burned t death that was Down to Council and fire Brigade no need for them to be mouthing off they have a lot of blood on their hands and not Snow White themselves.
I was listening to radio on the night a blow by blow account from 12.00 o’clock. Fire Brigade told them to stay inside and keep doors shut and leave them deal with it.
The most stupid advice ever anyone knows by natural instincts its a fire get to hell out of there.
3.00 o’clock the advice changed come out now if you can, are those people for real and to think that was their Policy up until then. I won’t bother even thinking what would be the outcome if it was private landlords.
I have a similar property, a coffee shop with a busy kitchen and one bed flat above, the coffee shop has fire detection with a direct hard wired link to an alarm in the flat above with 2 points of exit, whether the lazy woman in the flat above would get out of bed is another thing though
I know fire Regulations are all important but £10k was a good stick anyway but they don’t even have to justify their costs just pick figures from the sky. I would love to see them tender for a job o the real World.
The misfortunate people on the Street are at significant risk but they are not bothered about them, their lives are at risk in so many ways not least freeze to death.
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