Ex hotel owners to appear in court for fire safety breaches

The jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court took 55 minutes to find the former owners of the Connaught Hotel West Midlands Ltd guilty of 11 charges of failing to take sufficient fire precautions.

Jurors heard how the venue was a “death trap” hotel that put lives at risk with a “catalogue of failures”.

The breaches were discovered by investigators after a fire tore through the hotel in October 2007. These included the fire alarm not working, no smoke alarms or detectors in rooms, fire exits blocked and one fire door without a handle.

Investigators discovered that fire blankets were missing and fire exit routes were blocked. One fire alarm had been covered with a plastic bag.

The 87-bedroom hotel is now owned by another company.

Mr Jackson, prosecuting said many of the guests in the hotel at the time only knew something was wrong “when they heard people screaming and banging on doors to get out”. He told the jury the failures “turned the hotel into a death trap”.

He added: “The fact no-one died or was seriously injured in the fire was good fortune. All of the people staying there were at risk from this catalogue of failures and fire safety breaches. The photographs taken by the fire service speak for themselves.”

Sentence will be passed at Wolverhampton Crown Court on March 13.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that you: ‘must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed’

This means that all companies as a first point in their Fire Safety must complete a Fire Risk Assessment.  This must be carried out by a competent person, who is trained to perform risk assessments.  Your Fire Training needs, your fire extinguisher needs and any other fire safety related issues you will need to address will be highlighted from the Fire Risk Assessment.