Cleaner ‘said she was looking for a new job night before blast’
AMILL cleaner killed in an explosion told a neighbour the night before the blast she was looking for another job because conditions were so bad, a court has heard.
Cleaner Dorothy Bailey, 62, died along with maintenance fitter Derek William Barks, known as Will, 51, mill worker Derek Moore, 62, and chargehand Jason Shingler, 38, in the explosion at the wood mill in Bosley, Cheshire, on July 17, 2015.
Giving evidence at Chester Town Hall this week, Daniel Coates, who lived in a cottage on the mill site, said he had left his job in site maintenance at the Wood Treatment Ltd plant in March 2015.
He said he had seen Mrs Bailey, who lived next door but one to him, the evening before the explosion. He told the jury: “She said I’d done well to get out of the place and that she was trying to do the same.
“She was looking for somewhere else to live and looking for a new job because the conditions had got that bad.”
Mr Coates said he was given the job by mill owner George Boden, who is charged with gross negligence manslaughter, in 2012 and saw dust levels in the facility get worse over the period he worked there.
The court has heard the exact cause of the blast was not known but could have been one of a range of scenarios, each of which involved a massive explosion of wood dust.
The jury was shown video taken by Mr Coates in March 2015 of wood dust outside the Riverside area of the mill blowing into the nearby river, and around machinery.
The court was also shown photos taken in 2010 by electrician Philip Grimwood, who worked at the mill for 30 years, showing ‘mountains of dust’ around machinery.
Mr Grimwood said dust levels became worse after the mill was taken over by Boden and his brothers in 2008. He said: “It was worse outside, there were piles of dust outside blowing down the road. The cleaning regime was inadequate. It was a right state in places.”
He told the court he had discussed the dust levels in the Riverside area with George and Wayne Boden.
He said: “They were kind of blaming everyone else apart from themselves and the machines in there.
“They knew there was a problem.”
Mr Grimwood said on July 17, 2015, he was in the station shed on the site at about 9.05am when he heard a loud bang.
He said he made his way outside the shed and saw ‘devastation’.
He said: “It was total carnage out there.”
Wood Treatment Ltd has admitted a health and safety offence but denies four counts of corporate manslaughter.
Owner and director George Boden, 65, of Church Road, Stockport, denies four counts of gross negligence manslaughter and a health and safety offence.
Mill manager Peter Shingler, 57, of Tunstall Road, Bosley, and operations manager Phil Smith, 59, of Raglan Road, Macclesfield, both deny a health and safety offence.
The trial is expected to last three or four months.
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