Second safety fine in five weeks for steel giant

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.

Magistrates heard that two workers narrowly avoided being killed or seriously injured when a gas pipe burst into flames during repair work. On 25 February 2009, the company detected gas leaking from an overhead pipe, which fed the central power station at the steelworks.

The leak was coming from a split in the pipe and the company contacted a specialist contractor to plug the gap using a bung and resin, but he was not able to carry out the work until the following day. The company measured the carbon monoxide levels at ground level and deemed that it was safe to delay the repairs until the following day.

The next day the contractor and another man, who worked at the site, used a cherrypicker to inspect the pipe. They found that the split had widened to a ‘fist-sized’ gap, so they decided to cover the hole with a fabricated metal plate.

When they attempted to put the first screw in place, the gas in the pipe ignited and flames jetted out of the hole. One of the men suffered superficial burns and the other was unharmed. Firefighters attended the scene and extinguished the blaze.

HSE inspector John Moran explained that the company failed to carry out a risk assessment. He told SHP that the gas supply wasn’t isolated and the pipe should have been purged with nitrogen to ensure that no gas remained. €

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