10/05/2010 - Landlord fined after horror blaze
A landlord has been jailed for 30 months for breaching health and safety legislation after a fire in a flat left a tenant with 80% burns.
Michael Billings, of Beccles, Suffolk was also ordered to pay £20,000 costs after admitting breaching health and safety and fire safety legislation. Barmaid Layla Skalli, 20, was only saved by pioneering skin grafts after the April 2009 fire at her Norwich home.
A Health and Safety Executive spokesman told Norwich Crown Court it was the "most distressing" case he had seen in 30 years. He added: ""Virtually all the skin below her neck was destroyed by the intense 600 degree heat as the property above a mobile phone shop became a raging inferno."
Billings, aged in his 50s, had not given "even the most basic protection" for tenants, the spokesman added. There was no working fire alarm, no adequate means of escape and the property did not have the required number of fire doors.
The sash window in the flat could only open by four inches, preventing Miss Skalli's escape, and smoke blocked the stairway. Firefighters rescued the woman after finding her lying on the floor of the flat with her hands over her face.
Related links
|
