‘Safety’ solvent firm fined after risky process led to explosion

MANAGERS at a firm called Solvents with Safety have been ordered to pay almost £27,000 in fines and costs after officials found dangerous working practices led to a massive blaze and explosions at its site.

Investigators from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) were called after the devastating fire, which led to a major alert with 80 firefighters called to deal with the flames at the height of the fire.

Magistrates in Doncaster heard the company admitted breaching regulations under the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 following the incident on June 16, 2010.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The court heard that staff at the firm’s headquarters at Plumtree Farm Industrial Estate in Harworth, south of Doncaster, had been decanting highly-flamable toluene in the moments before the fire.

Lawyers for the HSE told the court that the chemical, a common solvent, was being transferred from a bulk container into a smaller drum using a pipe which was apparently too short for the operation.

This meant dropping the liquid from the pipe into the drum, a process which is known in the industry as “splash filling” which is known to create static electricity, which can spark and ignite.

The court heard toluene has a flash point of just four degrees Celsius meaning that on the “hot” June evening when the operation took place the chemical would have had a flammable vapour on its surface.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

HSE inspector Jayne Towey said the build up of static electricity in the drum is thought to have ignited the vapour and sparked a fire that quickly took hold and spread to other containers on the site.

Some of these contained dangerous solvent mixtures, which exploded. Seven workers who were present at the time managed to escape unharmed after they evacuated the site and called the emergency services.

The initial blaze was described as “escalating to a raging inferno within minutes” and fire crews were forced to fight the blaze throughout the night while some nearby residents were evacuated from their homes.

Speaking after court case, Ms Towey said: “The workforce were extremely lucky to escape unharmed from this incident.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The size and scale of the fire was immense, it took hold in minutes and caused total devastation to the premises.

“Lives were needlessly put at risk because there would have been no blaze at all had the company taken more care with the decanting operation.”

The HSE said it had twice written to Solvents with Safety, in May 2006 and December 2007, to warn of the dangers of splash filling containers.

Ms Towey said worker safety was further compromised by the fact that the pipe use to fill the container wasn’t earthed and because personal protective equipment work by workers was not anti-static and therefore unsuitable.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She added: “The method they used was fraught with risk, to say the least, and the generation of static charge could have been prevented by the provision of a longer filling pipe to avoid splash filling.”

“This was a reasonably practicable measure to take, and the company was well aware of the dangers on the back of earlier HSE advice.

“Companies working with dangerous substances must take extreme care at all times and in all aspects of their operations.

“That clearly didn’t happen on this occasion and it could have had far-reaching consequences.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Magistrates fined the company £20,000 for the breach of regulations and also ordered it to pay £6,800 in prosecution costs.

Solvents with Safety describes itself on its website as “a leading solvent supplier within our sector being able to supply both virgin and recycled solvents to a wide variety of industries”.

Last night the firm’s managing director, Brendan Pope, declined to comment.