Explosives firm fined £670,000

A manufacturer of military explosives was fined £670,000 after a worker died and another sustained significant burns. The incident occurred in August 2018 when the two men were cleaning a vessel used in the production and were removing residual explosive material in preparation for the next day’s shift. An investigation by the HSE found that the company had failed to carry out an appropriate risk assessment. They had also failed to identify that explosive material was building up within work equipment or to identify the sensitiveness of these explosives. In addition workers were poorly supervised, allowing routine non-compliance with process instructions to take place.