ined £500 after blast
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IAULAGE COMPANY was 1 E500 on Monday for incorstorage of the hazardous nicals which caught fire in a 2r conflagration at Salford, 'ter Manchester, last Sepber.
undreds of people were :uated from nearby houses about 60 were treated in )ital for minor injuries and ;k following the outbreak three explosions.
le company, A. J. Bloor tradas B & R Hauliers, pleaded :y at Salford magistrates -t to contravening the Health Safety at Work Act 1974.
le firm admitted failing to a sodium chlorate and cerother chemicals safely.
alcolm Wright, prosecuting, ribed the evacuations and ries and added that no one seriously hurt in the inciI on the night of September nd 26.
;veral youths were convicted rson and burglary in relation le blaze.
r Wright, principal inspector actories for the Health and aty Executive, said there a chemicals being stored at premises which contained a number of hazards but of particular relevance to the hearing 29.5 tons of sodium chloride.
It was being stored for ICI and was contained in about 600 drums on wooden pallets.
Following explosions elsewhere involving the chemical, advice was issued that the chemical should not be stored on wooden pallets.
The HSE also said the chemical should be isolated from other combustible materials.
Three major explosions followed the Salford fire and the company's premises were extensively damaged he said.
Anthony Hammond, defending, said that both ICI and B & R Hauliers had been unaware of the HSE guidance leaflet.
If ICI had given proper advice on the storage of the chemical, the company would simply not have stored the goods.
Stipendiary magistrate Cecil Latham said: "The defendants did not exercise a proper degree of care."
But it was not a case in which the maximum penalty of £1,000 fine should be imposed.