When the operational staff were the only ones on the ball
What happened?
Staff had reported an unusual smell coming from the plant serving a swimming pool and spa in a health club in a four star London hotel. The health club manager called the maintenance contractors and was advised to call the fire and rescue service immediately. The manager ignored this advice and called the contractors several times, asking them to send a maintenance engineer.
The next day an engineer arrived and, noting the strong smell of chlorine near the pool plant room, insisted the hotel staff call the fire and rescue service. When they arrived they confirmed there was an uncontrolled escape of chlorine gas and evacuated the hotel.
EHO inspections found the chlorine alarm system at the hotel was broken, despite management having been alerted to this eleven months earlier and given a quote for its repair. The EHO measured the concentration of chlorine gas in the plant room at 21.4 parts per million, more than twice the fifteen minute short-term exposure limit permitted.
Legal Outcome
The hotel pleaded guilty and were fined £14,000 for a breach of S(2) of the HSWA, £2,500 for a breach of 3(1)a of MHSR, and a breach of 5(1) of PUWER. They were ordered to pay costs of £28,500.
What can we learn from what happened?
Features of this case were outdated risk assessments, inadequate staff training and poorly maintained equipment. It seemed the operational staff who noticed the smell and reported it to the manager may have been the only ones on the ball at this hotel.
While not explicitly stated in reports about this potentially very serious incident, it is a theme that hotels which have leisure facilities, and specifically swimming pools, are not industry experts in this field and are not competent enough to identify the many associated hazards and know how to deal with them. This can’t be levelled at this particular hotel (or indeed all hotels with pools), but any competent pool operator would make sure there is a chlorine alarm that is working….
Source of Information
QLM Newsletter
The Caterer