On 25 February 2009 coke oven gas was detected leaking from an overhead pipe at Tata Steel’s Scunthorpe Steelworks on Brigg Road.
It was decided to delay beginning repair work until the following day. The small hole in the pipe feeding the plant’s central power works could be repaired with a bung and resin, it was thought. But that plan had to be abandoned when the hole widened to “fist-sized”, with a diameter of around 75mm.
Instead an alternative was proposed, using a fabricated metal plate that would be drilled in to place and then sealed.
But, as a Tata employee attempted to put the first screw in place, the live gas in the pipe ignited, sending a jet of flames up to three metres in length shooting from the hole.
Two workers, one of whom was an external contractor, were in the basket of a mobile working platform, just inches from the blast.
One suffered minor facial burns before the platform could be manoeuvred to the ground.
Both the emergency services and Tata’s on-site fire fighters tackled the blaze to prevent the situation escalating. Only then was the coke oven gas supply isolated.
After the hearing at Scunthorpe Magistrates’ Court HSE Inspector John Moran said:
“This was a serious incident and a very near miss for those involved.
“Thankfully on this occasion a full recovery from the injuries sustained was possible, but it could easily have resulted in a double fatality, and it is a matter of chance that it didn’t.
“This poorly managed repair was gambling with people’s lives by putting them in positions of extreme risk,” he declared.
Tata Steel UK Limited pleaded guilty to two separate breaches of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002.
The first, of Regulation 5(1), related to an inadequate and unsuitable risk assessment.
The second, of Regulation 6(1), concerned the fact employee safety was compromised by Tata failing to eliminate the risk arising from coke oven gas.
The company was fined a total of £30,000 and ordered to pay £1,696 in costs.
