Chemical company fined £1 million after fatal explosion

Briar Chemicals has been fined £1 million after a man died in an explosion at its plant in Norwich.

Chelmsford Magistrates Court has heard how on the 27 July 2018, maintenance contractor, Rob Cranston, who was 46, was carrying out repair work on a mixing vessel during a planned period of shutdown maintenance. 

It is thought that his welding torch or grinder accidentally ignited flammable Toluene vapour inside the vessel which should not have been present when the work began. Mr Cranston’s son Owen, then aged 22, was working alongside his father when he was killed in the blast.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that a quantity of Toluene residue had been left inside the vessel after shutdown at the beginning of June 2018.