Elder healthcare, a care home in the Isle of Man, was fined £46,000 for health and safety breaches and ordered to pay a further £4,000 in prosecution costs after a fire on the 17th November 2019 at Ms Olive Renecle’s home on Fuchsia Lane, resulted in her death.
The fire was most likely caused by an electric heater left on overnight and in addition to this, fire doors in the flat were found to be pinned back and plug sockets overloaded – none of which could be attributed to Elder Healthcare.
Smoke and heat detectors were linked to the nurse call centre at the home which is required to give emergency assistance to the residence in sheltered accommodation on Fuchsia Lane and Fuchsia Court.
Even though a smoke detector had triggered the call system, the staff could not work out which flat the alarm related to due to problems with the documentation and contact lists.
Checks were made in the home, but not in the sheltered flats 100m (0.6miles) away. Staff then turned the alarm off and did not contact the fire service.
Firefighters attended the scene only after a neighbour noticed smoke coming from the flat, and dialled 999. Olive later died in hospital.
The court heard Elder Healthcare was not to blame for the death of Olive Renecle. However, even though fire risk assessments and fire training in general had been carried out by the care home, “shortcomings” were found in fire safety training and procedures, and Deemster, Graeme Cook, said that the firm needed to be aware “this must never happen again”.
Elder Healthcare have said fire safety training has since been updated as well as its contact lists.
