Newgrange Care Home fire image
Credit: BBC News

After two pensioners died in a fire at a care home in 2017, the company which runs the care home has been fined over failing to comply with fire safety legislation.

Ivy Spriggs, 91, and Daphne Holloway, 88, died in a fire at Newgrange Care Home in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, on the 8th of April 2017.

The company, Newgrange of Cheshunt, which runs the home admitted five charges of failing to comply with fire safety legislation. It was fined £175,000 and will have to pay some prosecution costs, which Hertfordshire County Council has confirmed is still being negotiated.

33 residents were rescued from the blaze, three of whom needed hospital treatment for burns and the effects of breathing in smoke.

The cause of the fire was discovered to be from an electrical fault which spread to the roof.

Speaking after the sentencing at St Albans Crown Court, Hertfordshire’s chief fire officer Darryl Keen told BBC News: “This incident highlights the need for all business owners to ensure they fully comply with fire safety legislation.

“If enough competent staff had been present and properly trained to carry out long-established and recognised guidance on evacuations in a care home I am sure that a full evacuation would have been started long before our arrival.

“Evacuation of a care home is a difficult task and needs to be properly considered and practised so that everyone can escape unharmed.”

The fire service has since undertaken further inspections of the county’s care homes, according to a spokesman for Hertfordshire County Council, which runs the fire service.

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