In 1992, five workers were killed at the chemical company, Hickson and Welsh, in Castleford, West Yorkshire. The accident followed the first cleaning in 30 years of the sludge from a tank of volatile mononitroluene (MNT).
The job had not been properly assessed for risk and was left to a junior team leader who had only recently returned to the MNT section. Incorrect cleaning tools were used, a monitoring thermometer was inadequate, the sludge content had not been analysed and the whole approach had been ‘casual’.
During the cleaning operation, a fireball suddenly burst from the tank, torching a frail control cabin next door and leaving the factory’s main office block with shattered windows and burnt-out rooms. The company was fined £250,000 with £150,000 costs in the High Court for breaches of their safety duties and face legal proceedings from the victims of the accident. Managers in the department were having to deal with several other problems and the company was in the middle of a management re-organisation. Dr Carter, head of the HSE field operations who reported 2 years later on the accident, said that ‘the company had undergone a major management transformation and safety procedures had not caught up with that change’. Essential lessons for the chemical industry included basic reminders of proper practice, especially the vital need for rigorous planning before any unusual task was undertaken. The manager director of the plant, the operations director and manager all left the company shortly after the accident.
