A LANDLORD from Blackburn has been fined £10,000 for fire safety breaches after an arson attack on one of his properties in Preston.

Serious damage was caused to a three-storey mid-terrace property in the city’s Grimshaw Street in June 2014.

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But Preston Crown Court heard that a resident, attempting to flee the blaze, had to run past the fire to make her escape.

The landlord of the property Faisal Hussain, of Gorse Road, Blackburn, admitted 10 breaches of fire safety regulations and was fined £1,000 for each offence and to pay court costs of £11,600.

Hussain, who pleaded guilty on behalf of 3i Investments Ltd, of which he is the sole director, was also given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, as well as a 240-hour community service order.

The court heard that because of the heat from the fire, two uPVC windows in the property had become so warped that they fell out, narrowly avoiding a householder living in a ground floor flat below.

An inoperative fire alarm system and a lack of separation between the flats and escape routes was discovered following a probe by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and Preston City Council.

Speaking after the case, Tony Crook, the fire service’s prevention group manager, said: “We hope that this prosecution will ensure that the standard of the property is now kept within the requirements of the law.”