Rotherham steel maker fined

A Rotherham steel maker was fined £ 180,000 and ordered to pay £82,980 costs following an incident in March 2012 when a furnace operative suffered life-threatening injuries.

A control system fault caused twenty-five tonnes of molten metal to spill from a furnace. Following the usual practice, the worker and a colleague began to hose water onto the spilled metal to cool it down. Soon after the water made contact, there was an explosion and the worker was covered in molten metal.

An investigation by HSE found that the company had no procedures for dealing with spillages of molten metal, no assessment of the dangers and risks had been carried out and there was no safe system of work in place.