Poundstretcher fined £55,000 over fire escapes

Only one out of six fire exits could be used in a busy bargain store, Leeds Crown Court was told, and the consequences of a fire at Poundstretcher in Castleford could have been "frankly appalling," said Judge Jonathan Rose.

The store on Carlton Street would have been a "death trap," he declared. Yesterday the judge fined the firm a total of £51,500 with £3,449 costs for seven breaches of the Fire Safety Order 2005. He pointed out that the business had twice been prosecuted last year for similar breaches at its Halifax and Wakefield stores and had been fined a total of £20,500 for those offences.

These convictions were warnings to the company but were not enough to make Poundstretcher do an urgent review of fire safety in its other stores, said the judge. "Poundstretcher had not put their house in order by October 7, 2009, when, as a result of a chance passing by a fire safety officer, it was observed that the Castleford store was failing in its duties," he said. Toni Wharton, prosecuting, said that combustible material was stored en route to one fire exit and trolleys blocked another. Persons who used a ground floor exit could have been trapped in a stairwell "like a tin of beans," she said.

Yorkshire Post