Where There’s Smoke…

Imagine the situation. You have a fire at your premises. The Fire Brigade come out quickly and put it out. They do a visual inspection to satisfy themselves that it is extinguished. They go away. The fire re-ignites. Further fire damage is caused before the Fire Brigade can put it out for the second time. What do you do? Well, it’s obvious that you sue the Fire Brigade – apparently on the basis that (1) once they had conducted their visual inspection and before leaving, they should also have used a thermal imaging camera to locate any “questionable areas” in the smouldering debris, and (2) the Fire Brigade, instead of having their manpower available for any other emergency, should have maintained a regular check on your premises to make sure that the fire was truly extinguished. Doubtless, you might infer a certain amount of dryness in that last sentence!

In a recent case, Strathclyde Fire Brigade was taken to court by the farm of A J Allan (Blairmyle) Ltd in relation to a fire at a farmhouse where such a situation developed, and those arguments were then advanced at the Court of Session. The Inner House rejected the arguments on the basis that the Fire Brigade had not made matters worse or inflicted any fresh injury when they arrived at and dealt with the fire. It would not be fair to impose the duty and standards of care on the Fire Brigade claimed by the Pursuers in this action. The only duty of care which the Fire Brigade had to the public was to take reasonable care not to add to the damage which the owners of the premises would have suffered if the Fire Brigade had done nothing at all.