Blast mill worker ‘sacked for raising safety concerns’
AWORKER at a mill where an explosion killed four people has told a court he was sacked after raising safety concerns.
The blast at the wood mill in Bosley, Cheshire, on July 17, 2015, killed cleaner Dorothy Bailey, 62, maintenance fitter Derek William Barks, known as Will, 51, mill worker Derek Moore, 62, and chargehand Jason Shingler, 38, whose body was never recovered.
On Tuesday, chargehand Matthew Dutton told a trial at Chester Town Hall he and a colleague had been told to go home after refusing to clean the Riverside area of the mill because he believed it was dangerous.
He said: “The machinery was still operating. It’s moving objects and using a shovel and cleaning products around moving objects could risk losing limbs.”
Mr Dutton, who had worked at the mill with his father and uncles, said the dust in the area was up to his knees and ‘unbreathable’.
The court heard manager Peter Shingler, who is charged with a health and safety offence, was ‘intimidating’ toward Mr Dutton when he said it wasn’t safe to clean the area.
In a statement, Mr Dutton said: “Pete said we were doing his head in and it was best we went home.
“Basically he sacked us for not cleaning the Riverside when it was dangerous to do so.”
Malcolm Galloway, representing Shingler, suggested the manager had got a chargehand to turn off the machinery so cleaning could take place.
Mr Dutton said: “No, the machines were never turned off.”
The court heard about a week later Mr Dutton’s father, Mark, spoke to mill owner George Boden and he was given his job back.
He also told the jury Shingler had instructed him to dispose of waste from the mill into the River Dane, which ran alongside the site, and that areas would be closed off when health and safety officers or insurance company representatives visited to suggest they were not in use.
Another worker, Richard Wills, said the dust in the Riverside area was sometimes ‘packed up as tall as me’ and told the court he was six foot one.
He said cleaner Mrs Bailey ‘tried her best’ to keep the mill clean but it was ‘more than a one person job’.
Describing the moment of the explosion, Mr Wills told the court: “It was terrifying, like a bang, inside a bang, inside a bang and just heat.”
In his statement, he described seeing flames and bricks flying.
He said: “I heard a bang and then another and then I just got off, I ran, because I could see flames.”
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.
Wood Treatment Ltd has admitted a health and safety offence but denies four counts of corporate manslaughter while owner and director Boden, 64, of Church Road, Stockport, denies four counts of gross negligence manslaughter and a health and safety offence.
Shingler, 56, of Tunstall Road, Bosley, and operations manager Phil Smith, 58, of Raglan Road, Macclesfield, both deny a health and safety offence.
The trial is expected to last three to four months.