Charity says it was following fridge test regulations when man died in Wolverhampton house fire
The charity operators of a Wolverhampton house where a man died in a fire has insisted it was following appropriate health and safety policy when tragedy struck.
Keith Holmes, aged 49, only moved into the property run by the charity People Potential Possibilities (P3) days before his room at McHugh House, in Dickens Road, Low Hill, caught fire on December 31, last year. He died from asphyxia and smoke inhalation.
In a statement to the Express & Star, P3 said it hoped to give reassurance that it had been "following appropriate health and safety policy and processes within the service" and "reaffirms our absolute commitment to the safety of the people we support".
Following the inquest, Black Country area coroner Joanne Lees recorded a conclusion that that Mr Homes died as a result of an accident. She then submitted a 'prevention of future deaths regulation 28' report advising P3 to make changes to its maintenance practices after it emerged that a fridge in the first-floor room had not been tested for two years.
However, since the publication of Mrs Lees' report, the charity has stated that it wanted to clarify that under the regulations fridge testing was required only every four years and that the fridge in Mr Holmes' room at the time of the incident complied with the rules.
In a statement, P3's chief executive Mark Simms said: "During the pandemic P3 followed all expert guidance and advice from the relevant public health authorities about how to manage our premises, their maintenance and any associated risks. Following this expert advice a risk assessment was completed on April 17, 2020 for McHugh House, in Dickens Road, Low Hill, Wolverhampton and updated at appropriate regular intervals.
"We followed the statutory advice to balance our obligation to both the people we support and our employees to limit the risk of Covid infection and keep everyone safe. Crucially, this was reinforced by guidance issued June 30, 2020 by Wolverhampton Safeguarding Together which emphasised the risks posed by Covid should outweigh the risks that may be associated with a fire.
"Therefore, in line with the received advice P3’s maintenance department only undertook urgent and essential work during the pandemic. This is why our usual annual PAT testing had not been undertaken, but we must stress we were still compliant, as regulations only require PAT testing to be completed once every four years on fridges.
"Following this tragedy we acted immediately to continue to exceed the statutory requirements and completed PAT testing on 10 January 2022, which found no faulty electrical equipment."
Mr Simms also stated: "P3 remains deeply saddened by the death of Keith Holmes and we once again offer our sincere condolences to his family."
An investigation failed to determine whether the fire was caused by an electrical fault involving the fridge in Mr Holmes room due to extensive damage to the fridge, or by the ignition of Mr Holmes’ clothing or bedding caused by smoking materials which then transferred burning material closer to the fridge.
A total of 13, mainly young adult residents, managed to get outside as firefighters arrived.
The property was being used as part of the city's winter accommodation provisions. Mr Holmes had become homeless and was offered the accommodation on December 28.
