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Blog » UK chemical company fined £1 million for fatal 2018 explosion

The courts have fined chemical company Briar Chemicals £1 million after an explosion killed a contractor at its Norwich plant in 2018. The death of maintenance contractor Rob Cranston, aged 46, was previously ruled as “accidental” following an 11-day jury inquest in December 2020.

The fine was announced on September 16 following a hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates Court. The court heard how on the 27 July 2018, Rob Cranston, who was a contractor from the firm Pruce Neman, was carrying out repair work on a mixing vessel during a planned period of shutdown maintenance at Briar Chemicals’ factory in Norwich, an Upper Tier COMAH establishment. It is thought that his welding torch or grinder accidentally ignited flammable Toluene vapour inside the vessel, which should not have been present when the work commenced. Mr Cranston was taken to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where he died later the same day.

Mr Cranston had been working with one of his two sons, 22-year old Owen, who had started an apprenticeship with Pruce Newman just a few weeks earlier. Owen was providing “fire watch and has previously said how there had been “a bang and a ball of flames”. He rushed to a fire alarm before returning to the chemical tank where he found his father on the ground.

The HSE investigation found that a quantity of Toluene residue had been left inside the vessel after shutdown cleaning at the beginning of June 2018. Two damaged valves situated above the vessel in the Toluene supply pipe, were also found to be leaking. Operatives had been instructed to transfer a large quantity of Toluene from one storage tank to another via this pipe which allowed additional flammable liquid to leak into the vessel which was supposed to be empty and clean.

In a statement, the HSE said that Briar Chemicals had failed to take all necessary measures to prevent the explosion and as a result pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 5 of the COMAH Regulations 2015. The company was fined £1million and ordered to pay costs of £10,967.20.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Frances Bailey, who led the three-year investigation, commented: “This was a complex and highly technical investigation, due to the chemical hazards on site and the number of underlying issues which combined to cause the explosion. HSE hope that this case helps to communicate important safety messages to wider industry so that other fires and explosions are prevented in future.

“Any company handling or storing flammables should consider the potential risk of fire and explosion and ensure they have robust procedures in place to minimise and control risk at all times, including during planned maintenance work.”