Roofing contractor to pay £21 million in damages after a fire on site

The Express and Star reporter Helen Brown reported that the roofing contractor involved in the massive fire at Meuller Europe in Bilston in 2008 will now be forced to pay £21 million pounds in damages after being found to be at fault in a recent High Court action.

The devastating fire started when gas heaters at the factory ignited a scaffold board deck built by contractors carrying out re-roofing works leading to the total demolition of that section of the factory by our customer Humphries Demolition Limited.

During our H&S audits on the Humphries site at the time we were able to see at first hand the damage caused, including large areas of asbestos cement roof sheets that needed emergency decontamination units to be installed for the fire crews.

Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said:-

"The birdcage scaffold enclosed the heaters so that they were only a short distance above the surface of the scaffold's floor. Once enclosed by the combustible materials of the completed birdcage scaffold, the heaters were an obvious fire hazard, which should have been appreciated by anyone who turned their mind to the question".

If you are about to carry out work within exisiting factories and are unsure of your duties why not consider booking a fire marshall course, a hot works course or a risk assessment course for your site team. All are available at our training site at www.demolitiontraining.com

The full article from Helen Brown can be read online at www.expressandstar.co.uk