£125,000 Fine for Explosion and Fire

Eco-Oil of Canterbury, Kent, and one of its directors have been prosecuted over failings that led to an explosion and fire at its waste oil processing site in Rochester in March 2007 when a tank holding 300,000 litres of oil exploded.

At this time major changes were being implemented and a welder was welding a tank roof when the explosion occurred.

The company was fined £125,000 with costs of £20,000, its director was fined £5,000 with costs of £500.  An HSE inspector commented: “The incident occurred because the site operator lost control of what its contractor was doing.  It was miraculous that the person on the tank at the time it exploded was not killed”.