Morrisons under fire for blocking extinguishers and obstructing emergency exits

Morrisons under fire for blocking extinguishers and obstructing emergency exits

A supermarket has come under fire for blocking extinguishers and emergency exits.

Elland Morrisons has been criticised for placing displays of kitchen rolls and sausages in front of fire extinguishers and obscuring a fire exit with stacks of bread.

Obstructing extinguishers and emergency exits is contrary to Fire Safety Regulations and Morrisons’ own fire safety protocol.

Now the company has promised to rectify the situation.

The concerns were raised in an email to the company by shopper Richard Brewster, who said: “It is with sadness that I must contact you again over the poor standards and attitudes towards fire safety at your Elland store.

“I contacted you on January 10 about how on numerous visits to your store I had found that fire alarm call points and fire extinguishers were blocked in multiple instances around your store, sometimes with items of stock obstructing fire doors as well.

“I have on two occasions already made the local fire and rescue service aware of issues in your store and they have acted upon my concerns at least once.

“The response to my last contact was that it had been passed on to people at store and also at a regional level, and during my past couple of visits I noticed that items around the areas causing the obstructions had been removed.

“However, tonight I notice that the store has gone back to its old ways.”

Mr Brewster added: “Once again, this is a blatant disregard for people’s safety; this is basic stuff and should be picked up on by shop staff, managers and especially the store manager.”

A Morrisons spokesperson said: “We take health and safety procedures in our stores very seriously.

“All store colleagues are fully trained so we are disappointed that the correct procedures were not followed on this occasion.

“The store manager will be performing daily checks to ensure this doesn’t happen again and we will look at retraining colleagues where necessary.”

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