Two companies are due to be sentenced at Chester Crown Court following a major chemical fire.
Greenway Environmental Ltd and Pakawaste Ltd will learn their fate on July 28 after both firms pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It follows an explosion and fire at Aztec Aerosols in Crewe in June 2007 which covered 10,000 square metres, closing all surrounding roads and which took 100 firefighters and 25 fire engines to bring under control.
The blaze happened in an aerosol-shredding unit and caused many of the aerosols to shoot up into the air, damaging nearby buildings. An HSE investigation into the incident found that the unit had not been designed to safely shred waste containers and that it should have operated in a segregated area away from where flammable substances were being stored.
The unit had been designed, manufactured and supplied by Pakawaste and was being used on Greenway’s premises. Gill Chambers, investigating inspector at Health and Safety Executive, said that it was a serious incident which could have led to workers and the public suffering injury. She added: “There was obviously a fault in Pakawaste’s design and manufacturing process which resulted in the shredding unit exploding. Greenway should also have had better procedures and arrangements in place to protect its workers and prevent the fire from spreading.”