A manufacturer of cast and forged steel components has been fined £1m after a worker sustained third-degree burns when an oxygen pipe exploded.
An employee of Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering was carrying out checks to an oxygen pipe that had been fitted with a valve. As he investigated a hissing noise coming from the valve, both it and the pipe burst into flames.
The worker, 57, nearly died from his injuries, Sheffield Crown Court was told. He was kept in a coma for weeks and underwent several skin grafts.
The HSE found the pipe had been fitted with second-hand flanges and a butterfly valve, all of which contained materials incompatible with oxygen.
It was foreseeable, said the executive, that work would at some point be undertaken on the oxygen pipes that ran across the site, yet workers had not been trained in such work.
The company had failed to assess the risks as required and should have had a DSEAR assessment completed.
