Service criticised over fire deaths

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE), has issued an improvement notice to Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service following the fire at the vegetable-packing plant in Atherstone on Stour on November 2.

Speaking at a press conference, Alan Craddock, head of operations for HSE in the Midlands, said: "As a result of our work on this investigation, HSE has formed the opinion, based on the evidence we have seen, that the current arrangements employed by the authority do not comply with the statutory duties to provide its firefighters with all the information they should have to assist them in making the appropriate decisions when attending a fire."

Firefighters Ashley Stephens, 20, Darren Yates-Badley, 24, John Averis, 27, and Ian Reid, 44, died when attempting to tackle the blaze.

Mr Craddock said the fire service had four months to improve their arrangements for providing information on aspects such as locality of the incident, particular hazards of the buildings involved and where a water supply can be found.

He said: "Our investigation is not just looking at the incident in Atherstone on Stour, it is looking at the wider arrangements.

"We are not happy with current wider arrangements on their provision of information given to crews attending fires at certain premises."

He added: "We therefore today issued an improvement notice requiring the authority to make the appropriate arrangements to gather and take action in response to information about special risks which may be present at premises where firefighters may have to deal with emergencies."

He said the service should make an action plan for the inspection of premises which gives priority to higher risk buildings.

The fire service could appeal against the notice within the next 21 days, he said.