Fire exits at the Bog Irish Bar in central Dunedin were still blocked after a warning. Photo: Google Maps
The operators of a popular Dunedin bar who may have their licence suspended over blocked fire exits say it has been a profound wake up call.
A Fire and Emergency inspector found two of the three fire exits at The Bog Irish Bar on George Street were padlocked shut and duty managers did not know about the bar's evacuation scheme when he visited last month after a public tipoff.
FENZ inspector and community risk manager James Knapp asked for them to be unlocked immediately. before emailing and hand-delivering a letter the next day to tell Gurbani Club Limited - which operates the bar - that they were breaching fire regulations and what they needed to do to comply.
But police found the fire exits were still blocked when they visited later that week.
It prompted Fire and Emergency to lodge an application with the District Licensing Committee to suspend the bar's on-licence, which allows them to sell alcohol and allow people to drink there.
The committee met on Tuesday to discuss the possible suspension.
During his evidence, James Knapp said staff told him that one of the exit points was locked to prevent underage people from coming into the bar, which he said was not an acceptable explanation and raised more concerns.
The bar operators had failed to comply by not maintaining a way for patrons to escape from fire and training staff to help evacuate the building, and that would likely put people in danger, Knapp said
He was also concerned that he did not get a response until after the application to suspend their licence was made.
Knapp has since returned to The Bog, and said their evacuation trials were satisfactory and they were now compliant, but he was concerned there was not enough security staff.
One of the exits had been partially blocked by a table but he said that could have been put there by a patron.
Gurbani Club Limited directors Jasleen Saluja and Karandeep Singh offered their apologies to the committee, and said they had already made changes.
Singh said this should never have happened and he cut an overseas trip for ear surgery short because he wanted to address this.
He described it as a "profound wake up call" and they would be working to rebuild trust and welcomed more inspections
The manager responsible had been suspended for three months and would be getting retraining, while the rest of the staff would be getting refresher training every three months instead of the usual six months, he said.
The locks had been changed to ensure they were compliant and they also had more security staff on duty, Singh said.
Committee chair Colin Weatherall asked how long before the bar would be fully compliant.
"It already is," Singh said.
Weatherall urged them to abide by their commitments, and said that the committee would scrutinise their licence when it next came under review to ensure they were following the rules.
Saluja said they had explained to staff that the fire exit on the side should not be locked and had taken disciplinary action when they found out that their instructions were not being followed.
They had missed the email from Fire and Emergency because it had gone to their spam folder, she said.
After hearing about the changes, Knapp said a licence suspension might no longer be necessary if the committee directed the owner to pass a random inspection and show its training and trial evacuations.
The committee is expected to release its decision next week.
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