Landlord pays £27,000 for breaches after tenants’ lucky escape

A landlord has been ordered to pay £20,000 in fines after a fire caused his tenants to flee the property for their lives.

Hitesh Mashru pleaded guilty to four breaches of the Fire Safety Order last week (28 February) at Watford Magistrates Court.

He was also ordered to pay £7,394.58 in costs for the breaches, which took place at 39 High Street, Bushey.

On 24 April last year, six tenants were forced to escape the upstairs flats during an electrical fire which took 50 fire-fighters to extinguish. Investigations found the blaze was started by faulty electrics and that it was not connected with a Thai restaurant on the ground floor of the property.

Fire safety officers from Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service found that the premises had a number of failures which put lives at risk including no fire detection or fire alarm, no fire doors, no emergency lighting and storage on escape routes.

Neither had Mr Mashru carried out a fire risk assessment, as required by the FSO.

Hertfordshire’s chief fire officer Roy Wilsher, said: “Where breaches of fire legislation are considered so serious that there is a risk of death or serious injury to people we can consider prosecution.

“In this case, six people were extremely lucky to escape with their lives and we strongly urge that all landlords make sure their premises are safe from fire and are compliant with fire law.

“With the 2012 Olympics approaching and the ever increasing numbers of shared accommodation and bed and breakfast type accommodation, the responsible person must consider fire precautions for the protection of life”.