Fatal factory blast was the result of 'omission'
Published Date:
18 July 2008
A FACTORY blast that left nine workers dead was the result of an "absolutely avoidable omission", the company boss said yesterday.
Campbell Downie, chairman of ICL Plastics Ltd, told an inquiry he accepted no blame for the events that led to the explosion at his Glasgow factory on 11 May, 2004.
According to the 73-year-old, the omission was on the part of the health and safety authorities and ICL Tech, the ICL subsidiary that ran the factory.
The blast was caused by a leak when gas used to power an oven escaped from a corroded underground pipe and gathered in the basement. Records showed the pipe went unchecked since being laid in 1969 and later buried with the raising of the factory yard.
It fed into an unventilated basement created when bosses decided to roof an open pit.
ICL Plastics and ICL Tech were fined £400,000 after admitting health and safety breaches at the High Court in Glasgow last year.
The full article contains 171 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
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Last Updated:
17 July 2008 11:49 PM
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Source:
The Scotsman
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Location:
Edinburgh
