National hotel chain pleads guilty to fire safety offences
Hotel chain Travelodge has been fined £13,000 and ordered to pay 6,500 costs after breaching fire safety law at its Gatwick Airport Central hotel.
The company pleaded guilty to seven offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 at Haywards Heath magistrates court on Friday 14 September.
The prosecution was started after crews were called to extinguish a blaze on the ground floor of the six-storey hotel, which was being refurbished at the time. When fire safety officers attended the hotel, they were so concerned by the inadequacy of the fire safety measures that a prohibition notice was served preventing anyone from staying at the hotel.
The seven breaches were:
- An inadequate fire alarm system
- Failure to review their fire risk assessment
- Inadequate fire safety training for staff
- No planning, organisation, control and monitoring of fire prevention and protection measures
- Failure to properly maintain fire safety equipment
- Obstruction of escape routes
- Blocked fire exits
An Inspector commented that “Fortunately, due to the professionalism of our crews at the time of the incident, the fire was brought under control quickly and nobody was hurt. However, under different circumstances, the consequences could have been life-threatening.
“Protecting the public will always be our top priority and while we would much rather offer advice to the businesses to help them comply with fire safety law, where serious breaches are putting people’s lives at risk we will certainly seek to prosecute.”
Responding to the conviction, a Travelodge spokesperson said “At the time of the incident Travelodge Gatwick Airport Central was undergoing a major refurbishment project by a third party property contractor. Due to the unique set of circumstances a business decision was taken to close the hotel in order to accelerate the £10million overhaul programme that was currently taking place.
