Three fire-service command officers in the U.K. were charged with manslaughter by gross negligence in relation to the deaths of four firefighters in a 2007 warehouse fire. The court also charged the Warwickshire County Council with failing to ensure the occupational health and safety of its employees.

Firefighters Ian Reid, John Averis, Ashley Stephens and Darren Yates-Badley died in a fire at a vegetable packing warehouse near Stratford-upon-Avon. Investigators questioned 12 fire-brigade members about their conduct during operations to bring the fire under control.

Fire officers Paul Simmons and Adrian Ashley, who served as watch managers (chiefs), and Timothy Woodward, a station manager, all acted as incident commanders before, during and after the firefighters were sent into the burning building. “In that role, they were responsible for making operational decisions while their colleagues tried to put out the fire,” Michael Gregory, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Special Crime Division, said in a statement.

“I don’t think we’re going to take safety seriously until a fire chief or officer go to jail,” said Bill Peterson, former president of the international Institute of Fire Engineers and retired chief of Plano, Texas. “All it takes is a district attorney to would prove criminal negligence … and it’s probably only a matter of time before we will see something similar here in the states.”

Peterson currently works as a consultant in the fire industry. “In the past, this type of litigation has been against a manufacturer or supplier because of deep pockets, but I’m currently working on a case against a metropolitan department [where] they blew a red light at 37 mph and broadsided a high profile trial attorney — it certainly falls under gross negligence,” Peterson said. “In another case, the family of an individual that died in a fire is suing the department for negligence and failing to find the victim.”

All U.K. defendants are due to appear at Leamington Spa Magistrates’ Court on April 1.

“It’s a matter of time and a district attorney that can make a case against a department [here],” Peterson said.

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