FIREFIGHTERS are urging owners of business premises to check they are properly protected against fire.

The call comes after a property developer was ordered to pay more than £8,000 in fines, prosecution and other costs over fire safety breaches in flats where six people were living.

A second businessman is awaiting sentence after an employee was injured in a fire at his Indian takeaway business.

Station manager David Watson of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The majority of business premises we visit are well-managed. Owners and directors of companies are usually conscientious about fire safety matters.

“We do, however, continue to find a number premises, where the fire safety order applies, which do not have adequate fire risk assessments or fire safety provisions.

“In premises where sleeping takes place it is vitally important that the correct measures are provided and maintained. When fire alarm and detection systems are not provided or not maintained those people who are sleeping in a building may well have their lives put at risk in the event of a fire.”

He urged everyone with responsibility for business premises to make sure they had carried out a fire risk assessment, made sure it was up to date and that their property complied with fire safety laws.

Speaking about property developer Lawrence Stephenson, who has 13 properties in York, he said: “Unfortunately, the person with control did not give sufficient priority in terms of fire safety measures to the premises where people were sleeping.

The conviction shows how seriously the fire authority and the courts view those who put the safety of others at risk in the event of a fire.”

Before sentencing him, York magistrates heard that fire safety precautions at Stephenson’s properties, other than the flats in Fossgate, central York, complied with the law.

The service’s fire safety officers provide fire safety advice and run a series of seminars throughout the county for businessmen and women to learn about the laws.