No you don't have to pay them when they aren't working, even though it's not their fault. They should apply immediately for unemployment. Depending on what type of insurance you have, there might be some money there to pay them for awhile.

Good luck for getting back in business soon.

For this morning?

Yes of course.

Forever, no. If your workers earn an hourly wage and are not working, then of course you won't being paying them. In which case roughly two weeks from now they will file for unemployment and you will being paying more for that.

No if you send the workers home you are not required to pay hourly workers, if you have salary workers, you will need to lay them off in order to stop paying them. If you had business continuity insurance it would cover the continuing pay of the employees

What do your employees' contracts say? Unless they expressly permit you to avoid payment in these circumstances, you have to pay them for a period at least equal to their normal notice period.

You should have insurance for this.

UK

Upon reaching work this morning I discover a major fire in the premises behind us,which in turn spread to our shop and raised it to the ground.its a small business of 5 with little profit,am I legally obliged to pay wages still,I'd like to but don't have the funds?