{"id":5180,"date":"2019-04-26T15:31:56","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T15:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/?p=5180"},"modified":"2019-04-26T15:31:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T15:31:56","slug":"demolition-worker-burnt-by-flashover-from-electrical-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/demolition-worker-burnt-by-flashover-from-electrical-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Demolition worker burnt by flashover from electrical box"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two companies have been fined after a worker received serious electrical burns during demolition work.<\/p>\n

Chelmsford Magistrates Court heard how on April 12 2017, two demolition workers employed by sub-contractor R B Haigh & Sons were removing electrical distribution equipment from a switchgear room at the former Molecular Products site in Thaxted, Essex.<\/p>\n

Alan Banks had been told by the principal contractor that the electrical equipment had been isolated.<\/p>\n

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To reassure his colleague that it was safe he threw a crowbar at the 400V ac equipment.<\/p>\n

This came into contact with live exposed wires, causing a flashover and temperatures of several thousand degrees, followed by a subsequent fire.<\/p>\n

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As a result Banks suffered serious burn injuries and was immediately hospitalised.<\/p>\n

An HSE investigation found that the task being undertaken had not been properly planned and suitable control measures were not implemented to ensure the isolation of the power supply.<\/p>\n

The principal contractor, A J Wadhams & Co Ltd failed to follow the clear procedures outlined in their risk assessments and method statements, which identified all equipment must be treated as live unless written authorisation proved otherwise.<\/p>\n

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Russell Haigh and Stuart Haigh (Partners of R B Haighs & Sons) of Thaxted, Essex, pleaded guilty to safety breaches and were fined \u00a380,000 and ordered to pay costs of \u00a33882.65.
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AJ Wadhams & Co Limited trading as Wadham Homes of London also pleaded guilty to safety breaches and was fined \u00a380,000 and ordered to pay costs of \u00a33816.60.<\/p>\n

After the hearing HSE inspector Adam Hills said \u201cThis incident has had a significant impact on Mr Banks life and the injuries could so very easily have been fatal.<\/p>\n

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“Had the companies followed the control measures outlined in their respective risk assessments, then this incident would not have occurred.<\/p>\n

“Never assume that an electrical supply is disconnected. Always check with the Distribution Network Operator or a qualified electrician to obtain written proof of isolation before commencing work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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from Construction Enquirer http:\/\/bit.ly\/2GEbgNL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two companies have been fined after a worker received serious electrical burns during demolition work. Chelmsford Magistrates Court heard how on April 12 2017, two demolition workers employed by sub-contractor R B Haigh & Sons were removing electrical distribution equipment from a switchgear room at the former Molecular Products site in Thaxted, Essex. Alan Banks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-5180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-construction-enquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5181,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5180\/revisions\/5181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cita.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}