Updated: £350,000 fine after worker engulfed in fireball

Prosecutions and Claims |
21.01.2008

An explosion at a Suffolk factory which engulfed a worker in a fireball, leaving him with 45% burns, has resulted in a £350,000 fine for his former employer.

John Balls was in hospital for seven weeks following the explosion, which happened as he handled dried nitrocellulose. Storeys Industrial Products was fined at Chelmsford Crown Court on 14 January for failing to ensure his safety. Nobody from the firm attended court.

The explosion happened at Storeys' factory in Brantham, Suffolk, in November 2005. The firm manufactured propellant for mortar shells and had recently introduced a new working procedure, which involved using water-wetted nitrocellulose rather than spirit-wetted nitrocellulose.

Balls had been working for several days to dry out a 129kg batch of the new nitrocellulose. On 29 November, he was working alone doing overtime at the request of his manager. Using a fork-lift truck he transferred the dried nitrocellulose to a mixing room to add 40kg of methylated spirits. As he tipped it in, it ignited and he was engulfed in flames.

He managed to reach the door and summoned help from a colleague who happened to be passing. He suffered serious burns to his hands and face and the front and back of his upper body, and was blinded in his right eye.

Investigating HSE inspector John Hawkins told HSP that Storeys had changed supplier "but hadn't thought through the implications at all". The firm had not carried out a risk assessment of the new process nor put in place additional control measures. The European safety data sheet for the water-wetted nitrocellulose said it was "highly flammable" and had "explosive properties" but the company had failed to take proper precautions. There were handling errors and explosion risks at every stage of the drying process: the product was been raked using a metal implement, covered with polythene, and carried in a steel bowl on a forklift. At no stage was it earthed.

Storeys, which is now in administration, was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and fined £350,000 with £60,000 costs. Sentencing the firm, Judge Roderick Newton said it had put profit before safety and that "the extent of the danger would have been obvious to a three-year-old child."