BUPA pays record £1m fee after death of Cedric Skyers in fire

Cedric Skyers, a 69-year-old father-of-four, was smoking unsupervised in a shelter in the garden of Manley Court Nursing Centre when fire broke out in March 2016.

BUPA Care Services (ANS) Ltd was fined £937,500 for fire safety failings and ordered to pay £104,000 prosecution costs at Southwark Crown Court yesterday.

It is the highest ever fine for fire safety breaches in the UK.

The case was heard at Southwark Crown Court

London Fire Brigade brought the prosecution against BUPA under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, after it was called to the blaze on John Williams Close almost six years ago.

A care assistant saw the fire from a first-floor window and called 999 before staff attempted extinguish the fire. Mr Skyers was rushed to hospital, where he was sadly pronounced dead.

A subsequent investigation found that, although a smoking risk assessment had been carried out for Mr Skyers, it did not assess his use of emollient creams, which can contain paraffin and can be flammable if allowed to build up on skin, clothing or bedding.

Additionally, apparent burn marks indicative of previous incidents were found on Mr Skyers’ clothing after his death, something which care home staff said they had not been aware of.

They said that if they had been, they would have ensured more regular checks were made when he was smoking.

Mr Skyers was paralysed on the left side of his body, having suffered a stroke nine years previously.

The Brigade brought the case as there had been a failure on BUPA's part to comply with fire safety duties which placed Mr Skyers and other residents at risk of death or serious injury in case of fire.

BUPA pleaded guilty, accepting it failed to ensure staff understood risks from the use of emollient creams and failed to warn residents using paraffin-based products not to smoke, or, require precautions to be taken.

BUPA also admitted it failed to instruct staff not to leave a resident using paraffin-based products smoking unsupervised, and failed to carry out an individual smoking risk assessment of the resident as normal with the control measures in place.

Speaking to News Shopper in 2016, Cedric's son, David Skyers, said his father was a keen poet who had previously performed at The Albany Hall in Deptford.

David described Mr Skyers as a popular character who was “full of life”.

Responding to the ruling, LFB's assistant commissioner for fire safety, Paul Jennings, said: “This case is an absolutely tragic example of what the devastating consequences of failure to comply with fire safety regulations can be.

“There are a number of measures which the home could have put in place to mitigate the fire risk which Mr Skyers’ limited mobility, emollient cream use and smoking posed – but none of these were implemented.

“Mr Skyers’ family should rightly have been able to trust that he would be safe in a care home, when sadly the opposite was true.

“Such a large fine highlights the seriousness of BUPA’s failure to protect a vulnerable resident in its care.

“If there can be anything constructive to come from this, we hope that it will be that anyone who has a legal responsibility for fire safety in a building – whether as a landlord, property manager, care home provider or any other setting - takes note and makes sure they are complying with the law.

“I would like to thank my fire investigators, fire safety inspectors and the Brigade's legal team which has worked tirelessly on this harrowing case for more than five years.”

Have you got a story for us? You can contact us here.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.

Sign up to our newsletters to get updates sent straight to your inbox.