A company has been fined £9,000 for breaching fire regulations at the Falcon’s Nest Hotel in Port Erin.

Falcon’s Nest Hotel Limited was represented in magistrates court by director Robert Anthony Potts. On behalf of the company, he admitted nine counts of breaching fire precaution regulations.

The building in Station Road was found to have faults with compartmentation between floors, meaning fire could have spread more rapidly through floors, as well as faults with fire detectors, a fire door, the alarm system, and the emergency lighting system log book.

About 200 tyres were found in the basement which were deemed a fire hazard.

Magistrates fined the company £1,000 for each breach.

Prosecuting advocate Barry Swain told the court that fire crews were called after an alarm at the hotel on September 9 at just after 4.15am.

There was no fire. Officers carried out an inspection and found fire compartmentation in the bar and basement areas was not in a condition to provide the minimum 30 minutes’ fire resistance.

A fire detector in the basement, in the main bar area and in three bedrooms were defective. A fire door on the first floor between two bedrooms was not in a satisfactory state.

The fire alarm system was defective and monthly testing for the emergency lighting system had not been recorded in the log book.

Mr Swain said Mr Potts had co-operated and the 200 tyres had been removed.

Advocate Andrew Baker said the building had been a hotel for 35 years and was sold to a developer 18 months ago, then leased back to Falcon’s Nest Hotels Limited. The hotel employed 25 people and had 39 bedrooms over two floors.

Mr Baker said: ’Until just over a year ago they had employed a former member of the fire service and any issues would have been dealt with, but unfortunately he passed away.

’Since his passing the business has missed having someone as diligent. They divied out responsibilities amongst themselves but have realised that doesn’t work. They have now got a manager to take on the role and a night warden so there is someone there to deal with emergencies.’

Mr Baker said the company had previously identified that fire detectors needed repairing but there had been miscommunication in getting the work done. Regarding the compartmentation, the advocate said this involved tiles being swapped around to solve damp problems rather than there being no compartmentation at all.

A prohibition notice was issued on September 9 and lifted on September 20.

Magistrates chair David Craine told Mr Potts: ’We have heard that the issues were rectified very quickly, but that is a double-edged sword. If it could be done so quickly why wasn’t it done previously?’