Manchester landlord fined for breaching fire safety regulations

A Greater Manchester landlord has pleaded guilty to a number of fire safety breaches.

A Fire protection team visited Waseem Abbas’s property on Bury Old Road in Salford which was being used as a mobile phone shop, an internet cafe and a television and radio station in December 2011.

The investigation revealed that there were no fire doors in the building and other exits had been blocked by combustible materials. There were also no fire alarms and a risk assessment had not been carried out.

There was no means of escape for the upper floors of the property other than the staircase leading down to the main shop. This meant that people working on the upper floors would have been trapped in the event of a blaze on the ground floor.

Their escape attempts would have been further hampered by the bars that had been fitted on some of the upstairs windows.

He was fined £3,600 and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.

Peter O’Reilly from Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said: “This case shows that ignorance and failing to think about fire safety can be very costly. The starting point for all businesses should be to do a fire risk assessment which will help them identify how to keep the premises safe.”