A dairy firm has been fined £20,000 following a major explosion at its cheese factory in Cumbria.
The incident took place at Aspatria Creamery in Aspatria on 29 July 2010. The explosion emanated from the boiler house at the site and the force of the blast lifted the roof off the building.
The boiler room was partially destroyed and debris was thrown more than 100 metres across the site. Nobody was injured during the incident.
An investigation by the HSE determined that a blocked vent on a water heating system, known as a calorifier, had caused the tank to explode. The calorifier could hold 9000 litres of water and was used to produce hot water for washing the dairy.
Maintenance engineers at the site had been manually controlling the calorifier’s steam-supply valve, as the automatic control had broken. The vent pipe on the tank had become blocked due to a build up of calcium carbonate, which prevented the water from escaping when it became too hot. The pressure inside the tank continued to rise and the water temperature reached approximately 150OC before the tank exploded.
The creamery’s owner, First Milk Cheese Company Ltd, appeared at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court on 15 August and pleaded guilty to breaching reg.15(2) of the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000, for failing to ensure the valve was free of obstructions. In addition to the fine, it was ordered to pay £36,064 in costs.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Michael Griffiths said: “I hope this prosecution will act as a warning to any other company that uses hot water and steam systems to make sure they are properly maintained, so that incidents like this don’t happen in the future.”
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This incident should teach the company to tread more Caerphilly in future…
I’m aghast that someone ‘manually’ controlled a calorifier with 9000lts of water at 150c without at least a PRV!!
It must have gone off like the steam equivalent of a daisy-cutter when it blew. Anyone nearby would have had massive & potentially fatal scalding instantly!
The question why have a maintenance crew if they don’t maintain? has already been asked, but it begs asking again though doesn’t it!
A clear case of production/profit before safety/maintenance.
Cheese for brains for sure!!
Why is such a system not fitted with pressure relief valves and pressure gages clearly showing pressure continuity and or pressure build up?
Why have a maintenance crew if they fail to maintain?
Unbelievably fortunate not to have caused multipal fatalities, which is not reflected in the fine?
Sounds cheesy to me?
Bravo, bravo, nice touch Mick, you`ve taken the cream with that use of whey?
Very appropriate, top draw.
Wallace and Grommet declined an interview after this incident but did make a statement to say that they would be moving operation Wensleydale to the moon to ease on raw ingredient transport costs.
Its refreshing to see a prosecution against the regulations, and with a reasonably hefty fine being meted out. Although HASAWA could also have been cited.
It has occurd to me that the prosecution did not want to milk it too much, but as previously stated, this could easily have caused whey more damage than actually resulted.
Sorry, I couldn’t help it. If you have a better one, of course, feel free to rennet by us…. ;p
Sorry for the levity chaps and chapesses, but I saw this headline and the first thing I thought was, “What’s Gromit been up to now!”
PS Safety has to have some humour some of the time!
Brie-have, you lot – you’re not being very mature. I can’t believe you’re stilt-on this topic. It’s beginning to grate now : )
My first thought was “Must be damn good cheese!”