November

Manslaughter Charge after Tragic Blaze

Video footage of a blaze at a fireworks depot filmed by a firefighter moments before he was killed in an explosion has been shown to a jury.

Flames and smoke engulfed Festival Fireworks UK Ltd at Marlie Farm in East Sussex in images caught by Brian Wembridge on 3 December 2006.

Mr Wembridge, 63, and fellow firefighter Geoff Wicker, 49, died in the blast at Marlie Farm, near Lewes.

Company boss Martin Winter, 52, and his son Nathan, 25, deny manslaughter.

Not guilty pleas have also been entered on behalf of Mr Winter's company, now known as Alpha Fireworks Ltd, which faces two counts of breaching health and safety legislation.

'Vast fireball'

The footage started by focusing on the entrance to Marlie Farm, in Shortgate, as the fire first took hold, with fireworks popping and sirens sounding above the chaos.

In the final moments, Mr Wembridge trained the camera on a metal container filled with fireworks as flames enveloped it before the screen suddenly went blank.

A member of the emergency services at the scene described a hissing and sucking sound followed by a vast fireball before the massive fatal explosion, Lewes Crown Court was told.

Fire support officer Mr Wembridge's role included taking pictures at fire scenes for the media.

He and Mr Wicker were both long-serving members of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.

Some 20 other people, mostly police and fire officers, were injured in the blast, which sent fragments of the container, which was illegally filled with fireworks, far and wide.

The court was told that Festival Fireworks UK Ltd was found to be in breach of its licence at another of its sites a year before the explosion.

Insurers for the company found it was storing the most dangerous categories of fireworks at Upper Lodge Farm and urged bosses to remove them.

Prosecutor Richard Matthews said the insurers wrote to Martin Winter in 2005 about the fireworks stored at Upper Lodge Farm, urging him to address the matter urgently.

It was suggested that Mr Winter remove the fireworks and he replied saying he had sold them to a customer.

The trial continues.

Reading Festival Organisers Fined

The company that organises the Reading Festival has been fined £4,000 after admitting health and safety breaches.

Reading Festival Ltd admitted two breaches after failing to carry out a proper risk assessment and failing to ensure the safety of workers.

The charges were brought after two men were hurt when a crane ran into power lines during preparations for the festival in August 2006.

The company has agreed to pay £21,769 in prosecution costs.

Men warned

Earlier, festival promoter Melvin Benn had more than 18 charges against him dropped by Reading Borough Council. He had been accused of failing to ensure the safety of contractors, but the council withdrew the charges.

The court was told that the two men operating the crane had been warned about the danger from the high voltage cables.

They were building a stage when the arm of the crane came into contact with the overhead wires and the men were thrown from the vehicle.

They were taken to hospital but had been saved from serious injury by a fuse which cut the power when the wire was broken.

'Over-prosecuted'

Counsel for the defendants admitted the organisers had failed by not drawing up a written hazard assessment that included the power cables among the hazards for those working on site.

But they said their clients had been "hugely over-prosecuted" when a total of 36 charges were brought against them.

Reading council itself had failed to spot the danger the cables posed and the festival organisers operated to a "gold standard" in navigating their way through a "health and safety minefield", the court heard.

Deputy District Judge Peter Greenfield said it was "rather strange neither the council nor the company took the time to realise there might be a hazard from the over-head wires".

"Luckily it wasn't as catastrophic as it might have been," he added.

Reading Borough Council said: "The council is satisfied the serious and overarching charges pleaded guilty to by Reading Festival Ltd today reflect the most serious aspects this case."

Warning Issued over Lift Safety

The HSE has released a safety warning to alert employers and employees about recent structural failures of the main support structure (chassis) on Liftlux models SL260-25 and SL245-25 scissor lifts.

This information is being provided in advance of the conclusion of HSE’s investigations so that the industry can take prompt action to prevent a recurrence.

During the incidents cracks propagated across the entire width of the chasses causing the machines to collapse as shown in Figure 1. Following these incidents a number of machines of the same models but different ages were withdrawn from service and visually inspected in the same area of the chassis.

On many of the machines cracks were found that could potentially have led to similar failures. No similar failures have yet been identified in Liftlux models 210-25 and 205-25, although because these models are of a similar design, they should also be subject to the action detailed on the HS web site

Scores Dead in Indian Warehouse Blaze

CHENNAI, India — At least 33 people were killed in southern India when an explosion turned a temporary firecracker warehouse into an inferno, police said on Saturday.

They said victims had no time to flee the fast-spreading blaze, which occurred on Friday in Tamil Nadu state on the eve of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which is celebrated by people letting off fireworks.

"We have recovered 33 charred bodies," senior police officer C. Durairaj told AFP.

The fire broke out in Pallipattu town, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Tamil Nadu state capital Chennai.

Six people injured in the fire were being treated in hospital, Durairaj added.

The blaze erupted at a rice mill which had been converted into a firecracker warehouse and a wholesale outlet ahead of the festival season.

"The explosion was triggered by a firecracker which burst in the congested warehouse and people did not have time to escape," Durairaj said.

Fires at warehouses and factories involving firecrackers are common in India because of lax industrial safety standards.

Earlier this year, a fire at a fireworks factory in Tamil Nadu killed at least 17 people. Two years ago, 32 people died when a blaze gutted a firecracker factory in the eastern state of Bihar.

Royal Lancashire Show Cancelled

The Royal Lancashire Show has been axed indefinitely, bosses have announced.

Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society chiefs say financial backing for the summer 2010 show at Samlesbury Hall was withdrawn after problems agreeing a suitable access to the site.

The society will now be ‘mothballed’ and its commercial arm wound up with the loss of two jobs.

RLAS say it was in the process of preparing a traffic plan when they met with ‘an uncooperative attitude’ from the authorities.

However the Ribble Valley Event Safety Advisory Group, which includes Lancashire Police and Ribble Valley Borough Council, said it was waiting for an event safety plan.

The news comes after a number of previous shows were cancelled due funding and weather problems.

Plans to host the event at Samlesbury Hall struck difficulties when use of the access road off Barker Brow was refused by a landowner, according to organisers.

Company secretary David Marriott said: “The society has decided the company has to go into mothballs.

"The county show will not go ahead, and probably won’t ever again.

“We had financial support for next year’s show but came across a major situation when we were denied use of an access road to parking areas we had used in the past.

“We had an alternative but the council refused to accept these proposals, without even waiting for us to finalise the plans.

"Our financial support from local businesses was then withdrawn.”

A Ribble Valley council spokeswoman said there had been ‘some discussion’ of traffic plans but an invitation to the society to attend a meeting had been declined.

A spokesman for the safety advisory group, which comprises Ribble Valley Borough Council, Lancashire police, Lancashire Highways, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and the North West Ambulance Service, said: “Last month, the organisers of the Royal Lancashire Show advised us that they were looking to hold next year’s event in Ribble Valley.

“Following a meeting with the Royal Lancashire Show Society, we requested an event safety plan for the proposed event, but unfortunately this has not been forthcoming.

“We have not been officially informed of their decision to cancel the show.”

Qualification Oversight leads to Accident at Work

The HSE has reminded businesses to check the qualifications and experience of employees thoroughly after a forklift truck driver who had supplied fraudulent evidence of his was prosecuted and fined following an accident at work.

Damon Alex McLachlan was fined £500 at Livingston Sheriff Court after he pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The case comes after an incident on 10 October 2007 at a house construction site in Livingston, West Lothian in which McLachlan operated telehandling machinery without the stabilisers deployed.  This led to the machine losing its three tonne load, and crushing and seriously injuring the banksman.

The court heard that McLachlan was employed at the site as a telehandler operator for only a few weeks and the evidence he had provided of his training and experience was partly fraudulent.  At the time of the incident, McLachlan was using his machine to unload part of wooden house kit from a lorry and place it on the ground where it was needed for joiners to erect.

HSE Inspector, Bruce Monaghan, said: “This was a tragic incident which was entirely foreseeable.  Failure to deploy the stabilisers was a serious omission particularly so because the banksman was obviously nearby.  Operators must adhere to correct operating procedures otherwise serious incidents will result.

 “Additionally, this incident underlines the fact that employers and users of forklift trucks must check the experience and qualifications of those they employ in a particularly searching and careful way. Companies should be alert to the possibility that documentation presented as evidence of training, experience and competence can be invalid if obtained on the basis of false or misleading information.”