Rotherham United football club has been fined £150,000 after pleading guilty to a single offence under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The offence dates back to January 2015 where, on a non-match day, two functions held in the conference and events suites had to be evacuated following a fire alarm. It turned out there was no fire and nobody was harmed during the evacuation, however a club statement detailed that “the incident highlighted issues in the co-ordination of evacuation measures for non-match day events at the stadium between the Club and its third party hospitality partner.”
Following the events, the club launched an internal investigation and quickly took action to introduce more robust procedures. However, it can sometimes be too late to review things after an event, and Rotherham was lucky that this incident turned out to be harmless.
Emergency procedure planning can literally be the difference between life and death, and at RM one of our services is to provide such plans. The plans should only be produced after a fire risk assessment has taken place and the emergency procedures should be based on these findings. The document should be made readily available to staff, occupiers, visitors and enforcing authorities, and should be easy to understand.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that you must provide clear information relating to your building’s fire evacuation procedures, and we believe that any emergency plan is only as successful as your occupants’ awareness of it.
If you have any concerns with regards to your emergency procedure planning please get in touch.