A science teacher and the son of a colleague both sustained burns when an experiment in the school science lab involving a flammable substance went wrong. 

Fire commanders delayed the recovery of a woman lying at the bottom of a disused mine shaft, with fatal consequences, because they were overly preoccupied with adhering to management’s rescue policy, a fatal accident inquiry has found.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has been accused of putting fire-fighters lives at risk, following publication of a report by the HSE on health and safety management at the Brigade.

Fire-fighters in the middle of an emergency situation who take it upon themselves to risk their own lives to save others should be viewed as “truly heroic”, says the HSE.

The head of a fire brigade at the centre of an inquiry into the death of a woman who fell down a mine shaft believes that existing health and safety rules are preventing fire-fighters from saving lives.

Tata Steel has been sentenced for safety offences for the second time in just over a month following a fire at its facility in Scunthorpe.

A local authority has admitted to a breach of health and safety law in relation to the deaths of four fire-fighters who were sent to tackle a warehouse fire.

A labourer suffered serious burns to his face, neck and arms after he was engulfed by a fireball in a trench at Macclesfield Town football club’s training ground.

Two workers suffered facial burns from a flash fire while they carried out electrical work at a ferry terminal in Liverpool.



Two companies have been ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in fines and costs over a major chemical fire in Crewe four years ago – but the total could have been even higher had the judge not rejected the HSE’s original costs claim as unreasonable.

With tales of water tables rising, and more and more reports of flooding around the world, the integrity and performance of preventive structures like the Thames Barrier are more important than ever. Melyvn French provides an overview of how safety – and particularly fire safety – is ensured at London’s flood defender.

It used to be said that money makes the world go round but now that we are firmly in the age of information technology, data has taken over as the globe’s primary rotational engine. It is therefore crucial, explains Udo Meinhold, to protect data centres from their greatest threat – fire.

The plethora of position statements and explanatory notes issued recently in relation to risk-taking by the emergency services has merely emphasised that it’s ‘business as usual’. If police officers and fire-fighters are to be truly ‘liberated’, argues Bill Gough, more attention needs to be paid to those who set the rules in the command-and-control structure.

Several recent high-profile cases involving breaches of fire-safety laws and concomitant heavy fines have prompted duty-holders to start sweating about whether or not they are compliant. Ed Hall examines the key actions an organisation can take to protect those at risk from harm, and the organisation itself from unplanned costs and potential prosecution.

Hilary Ross examines the New Look case – a prosecution under The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRO) 2005, which caused some disquiet in health and safety circles, not least on account of the size of the penalty imposed.

The UK Timber Frame Association (UKTFA) has launched guidance on building timber frame safely on sites in high-risk and densely populated areas.

A new register of fire risk assessors which will recognise certification schemes that have UKAS accreditation has been launched by the Institute of Fire Safety Mangers (IFSM).

Fire-detection manufacturer Hochiki Europe has published free guidance on the code of practice for emergency lighting.

A firm specialising in ductwork cleaning is warning premises owners and duty-holders in the catering and hospitality sectors that failure to maintain kitchen extract ducts can have catastrophic consequences.

The Fire Industry Association (FIA) has published a best-practice guide to fire safety in commercial premises.

NEBOSH launched the International Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management at last month’s Intersec trade fair in Dubai.

Oxford-based safety control-systems specialist Industrial Design has launched a series of online fire-safety training videos, which, it says, can help companies train their staff in basic fire safety, allowing them to comply with legal requirements and improve health and safety standards.

Highlighting that some trade associations and insurance providers are increasingly concerned about construction-site fires, Argos Fire says it can offer a solution in the form of its Detectomat SRC3000 wireless-detect system.

The Fire Protection Association has produced a new DVD, which, it says, offers companies of all types and sizes everything they need to provide health and safety induction training for staff.

The Fire Protection Association has launched a new training DVD, Fundamentals of Health and Safety, which it claims is ideal for companies requiring a cost-effective, in-house training solution and for trainers who want to update their health and safety training aids with a single, comprehensive resource.