Steel company Corus has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an explosion in a 75-metre-tall steel chimney at a site in Scunthorpe, north Lincolnshire.

The incident occurred in October 2007 at Dawes Lane Coke Ovens, where four workers were described as ‘lucky’ to have escaped injury.

The HSE investigation found that a chimney known as a flarestack required welding to put right earlier repair work on the structure.

However, the stack was not adequately isolated from the live gas system when the welding took place and traces of extremely flammable gas were present inside. The gas ignited during the work and almost blew the flarestack in half.

The HSE decided to prosecute Corus for failing to remove flammable gas from the chimney before undertaking hot repairs – and for not carrying out a proper risk assessment.

On Wednesday (31/03/10) at Scunthorpe Magistrates’ Court, Corus UK Ltd – registered at 30 Millbank, London SW1 – pleaded guilty to breaching Section 5(1) and Section 6(1) of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002. The company was fined £10,000 with £6,155 costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Helen Berry said that it was ‘sheer good fortune’ that nobody had been killed or seriously injured in the explosion. 

‘We could so easily be talking about a catastrophic incident, given the size and scale of the structure,’ said Ms Berry.

‘The fact that there were no serious injuries doesn’t make this any less serious from a safety perspective. There were clear breaches relating to safe working and risk assessment, and it’s disappointing that a major employer like Corus failed in this regard and endangered the lives of workers.

‘I hope today’s prosecution sends out a strong message to the industry of the importance of proper safety procedures, and I hope future incidents of this kind can be prevented,’ she added.’

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