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- Lewisham Homes Prosecuted over Fire
Lewisham Homes Prosecuted over Fire
Posted on 30th Mar 2016 @ 11:58 PM
On January 29th this year, Woolwich Crown Court fined Lewisham Homes £40,000 plus £23,407 costs after the company pleaded guilty to one count of failing to maintain properly functional fire doors, and one count of failing to review a fire risk assessment that had been issued to them.
The payout of more than £60,000 was for breaking laws related to fire safety and followed an incident of arson that required the intervention of more than 100 firefighters. A flat on the 16th floor of the Marine Tower flats in Abinger Grove, Deptford, was set alight in a deliberate attack on February 4th, 2011 and resulted in the deaths of two Sri Lankan nationals.
In May 2012, a resident of the Marine Tower flats, Miss Sandra Clarke, was convicted by Woolwich Crown Court of two counts of manslaughter. The court was told how she was hostile towards Lewisham Homes, and having been due to attend a court hearing on the day of the blaze; she instead set fire to her flat using two cans of lighter fuel.
Kunaliny Alagaratnam, 42, and her 59-year-old cousin Santhirapathy Tharmalingam were both trapped in a flat and died as a result of their injuries. Ms. Alagaratnam’s husband and two young children were not present at the time of the fire.
Investigation by Fire Safety Officers
The prosecution under the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 followed an investigation by fire safety officers working on behalf of London Fire Brigade. Judge Christopher Hehir, sentencing, said this represented a “wake-up call” for companies unaware or negligent to the potential implications of failing to maintain satisfactory conditions relating to health and safety in tower blocks.
A failure by the company to adhere to proper procedures for fire alarm maintenance was found by an investigator to have directly contributed to the fire’s rapid spread. The fire doors in the flat at the seat of the fire were obstructed by a solid metal security door. This inability to properly close the fire door allowed the smoke and flames to spread rapidly into adjacent flats and shared areas.
After Clarke’s sentencing, the London Fire Brigade’s Assistant Commission, Neil Orbell, told how the tragedy served as “a stark reminder of the potentially lethal consequences of failing to maintain vital fire prevention features. Sadly in the case of the Marine Tower fire, this life-saving equipment was not adequately maintained., causing fire and smoke to spread rapidly into the public lobby area and ultimately into a flat where two women, trapped by the fire and smoke, tragically died.”
On January 29th this year, Woolwich Crown Court fined Lewisham Homes £40,000 plus £23,407 costs after the company pleaded guilty to one count of failing to maintain properly functional fire doors, and one count of failing to review a fire risk assessment that had been issued to them.
The payout of more than £60,000 was for breaking laws related to fire safety and followed an incident of arson that required the intervention of more than 100 firefighters. A flat on the 16th floor of the Marine Tower flats in Abinger Grove, Deptford, was set alight in a deliberate attack on February 4th, 2011 and resulted in the deaths of two Sri Lankan nationals.
In May 2012, a resident of the Marine Tower flats, Miss Sandra Clarke, was convicted by Woolwich Crown Court of two counts of manslaughter. The court was told how she was hostile towards Lewisham Homes, and having been due to attend a court hearing on the day of the blaze, she instead set fire to her flat using two cans of lighter fuel.
Kunaliny Alagaratnam, 42, and her 59 year old cousin Santhirapathy Tharmalingam were both trapped in a flat and died as a result of their injuries. Ms. Alagaratnam’s husband and two young children were not present at the time of the fire.
Investigation by Fire Safety Officers
The prosecution under the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 followed an investigation by fire safety officers working on behalf of London Fire Brigade. Judge Christopher Hehir, sentencing, said this represented a “wake-up call” for companies unaware or negligent to the potential implications of failing to maintain satisfactory conditions relating to health and safety in tower blocks.
A failure by the company to adhere to proper procedures for fire alarm maintenance was found by investigator to have directly contributed to the fire’s rapid spread. The fire doors in the flat at the seat of the fire were obstructed by a solid metal security door. This inability to properly close the fire door allowed the smoke and flames to spread rapidly into adjacent flats and shared areas.
After Clarke’s sentencing, the London Fire Brigade’s Assistant Commission, Neil Orbell, told how the tragedy served as “a stark reminder of the potentially lethal consequences of failing to maintain vital fire prevention features. Sadly in the case of the Marine Tower fire, this life-saving equipment was not adequately maintained., causing fire and smoke to spread rapidly into the public lobby area and ultimately into a flat where two women, trapped by the fire and smoke, tragically died.”
