Hotel owners across Nottinghamshire County are being advised to take notice after a local proprietor was fined £6,000 for breaches of fire safety legislation, following a serious fire at his hotel.
Wesley Chesters, who owns The Queenshead Hotel in Worksop, was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 in costs by magistrates on 14th October 2008, after he pleaded guilty to charges of failing to apply "Keep Shut" signs to all fire doors, in relation to both staff and guests.
Mr Chesters was prosecuted following a fire at his hotel in May 2007, when three guests had to be led to safety by firefighters from Worksop, Retford, Tuxford and Mansfield, after the first floor became smoke-logged. One further guest had to be rescured from a first floor window.
A subsequent investigation by fire safety officers at Nottingham Fire and Rescue Service uncovered fire safety contraventions which led to the prosecution.
Today, those officers are reminding all hotel owners of their legal responsibility to protect their staff and guests against the risk of fire, and warning them that they will take action against anyone found to be in breach of those fire safety regulations.
Mark Huckerby, Head of Fire Protection at Nottingham Fire Rescue Service, said "Fire Safety legislation is put in place to ensure people's safety, and we are responsible for policing and enforcing it. The public needs to be reassured that we take this duty very seriously and, while we continually strive to help businesses to achieve compliance and safer premises, the Fire Authority will prosecute serious breaches. The fire at The Queenshead Hotel broke out just two months before the devastating fire at the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, which claimed three lives. I hope that the tragedy of that incident, and the fines imposed by the court this week, will serve as a warning to other hotels that may not take fire safety as seriously as they should, and do not comply with the law."