Healthcare corporation ordered to pay biggest fine after death of disabled pensioner in its Brockley home

A care home business run by a private health firm has been ordered to pay a record £1.04m after a resident died in a fire while smoking at one of its care homes.

BUPA Care Services (ANS) Ltd was fined £937,500 for fire safety failings and ordered to pay £104,000 prosecution costs at Southwark Crown Court yesterday. It is the highest ever fine for fire safety breaches in the UK.

Cedric Skyers, a 69-year-old wheelchair user at the home, died in a fire whilst smoking unsupervised in a shelter in the garden of the home. A care assistant saw the fire from a first-floor window and called 999 before staff attempted to put the fire out, but Mr Skyers sadly died from his injuries.

London Fire Brigade brought the prosecution against BUPA under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order after it was called to the blaze at the Manley Court care home on John Williams Close in Brockley in March 2016.

A subsequent investigation found that although a smoking risk assessment had been carried out for Mr Skyers, it did not look at his use of skin creams, which can contain paraffin and can be flammable if allowed to build up.

Additionally, apparent burn marks from previous incidents were found on Mr Skyers’ clothing after his death, something which care home staff said they had not been aware of. They said that if they had been, they would have ensured more regular checks were made when he was smoking.

The brigade brought the case as there had been a failure on BUPA’s part to comply with fire safety duties which placed Mr Skyers and other residents at risk of death or serious injury in case of fire.

BUPA pleaded guilty to contravening Article 11 (1) which relates to the management of fire safety measures. Specifically, it accepted that it had failed to:

• ensure staff understood the risks from the use of emollient creams;
• warn residents using paraffin-based products not to smoke, or, require precautions to be taken such as the use of a smock or apron;
• instruct staff not to leave a resident using paraffin-based products smoking unsupervised; and
• carry out an individual smoking risk assessment of the resident as normal with the control measures in place

The brigade’s assistant commissioner for fire safety, Paul Jennings, said: “This case is an absolutely tragic example of what the devastating consequences of failure to comply with fire safety regulations can be.

“There are a number of measures which the home could have put in place to mitigate the fire risk which Mr Skyers’ limited mobility, emollient cream use and smoking posed – but none of these were implemented.

“Mr Skyers’ family should rightly have been able to trust that he would be safe in a care home, when sadly the opposite was true.

“Such a large fine highlights the seriousness of BUPA’s failure to protect a vulnerable resident in its care.

“If there can be anything constructive to come from this, we hope that it will be that anyone who has a legal responsibility for fire safety in a building – whether as a landlord, property manager, care home provider or any other setting –  takes note and makes sure they are complying with the law.

“I would like to thank my fire investigators, fire safety inspectors and the Brigade’s legal team which has worked tirelessly on this harrowing case for more than five years.”

Bupa said it had implemented a comprehensive action plan across its homes and villages to ensure the safety of residents. This included more comprehensive Smoking Risk Assessments for residents who smoke and regular staff training on self-harm, equipment, resident immobility, supervision, paraffin based emollient creams and smoking aprons and supervision.

Its statement added: “We supported our people through what was an extremely distressing time and have increased our fire safety training to ensure the safety of everyone in our homes.”

Donald Day, Operations Director for Manley Court care home, said: “Our thoughts and condolences are with Mr Skyers’ family.

“Following this tragic accident in 2016 we took immediate action across all our care homes to prevent it from happening again. We take fire safety extremely seriously and have in place detailed risk assessments for all our residents that smoke, increased supervision and we ensure our teams are regularly trained in fire safety measures.

“The wellbeing of residents in our care is always our priority and we are committed to keeping everyone in our homes safe.”

 If you are a responsible person, landlord, business or building owner, you can find out more about the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.