Strike a light! In March 1967 an explosion at the cursed Trinity Street plant killed another of their hapless workforce. The early report in the Birmingham Daily Post of 4th March reported an explosion that rocked the town. It was reported that this took place in the oil additives processing area. Bare in mind that these wretched chemicals introduced by W.B Albright during the war were already the cause of the foul “Oldbury smell”.
Observers from some distance away saw the explosion and it appears to have sent debris over a large area.
“The whole area was cordoned off by the police”
The article reported that additional firefighters were sent to the factory when two missing men were reported. It incorrectly states that no one was harmed by the explosion.
The following day the same paper reports on the death of Thomas Gough, 43 of Warley.
We learn here that Albright and Wilson graciously decided to “stop work” on a new chemical in the building concerned. The accompanying spin is just typical of their PR spin machine. An advert of how many people they employed- (2000) (wow that’s a lot and we’re so important an employer in the area) contrasted by the fact that it was the first fatality in 15 years (ergo what a great record we have).
“considered “negligible” by the company”
On 8th March from the same paper we have the usual band wagon of the amateur politicians thanking the emergency services. This borough, formed out of Oldbury was of course so rotten and packed with Albright and Wilson shills that it doesn’t really warrant any further comment. I’m sure for Thomas Gough’s family , it was a “catastrophe”.
And then on 23rd March at the inquest the paper also reports on yet another whitewash and unsatisfactory explanation as to what caused this explosion and a man’s death. The verdict of “death by misadventure” is totally unsatisfactory as this implies some dangerous risk that was taken voluntarily. The fact that Albright and Wilson’s spokesman states that it was not an experiment but a normal process operation just drops them even further into the shit.
If Mr Sigsmith didn’t know then who the bloody hell would? So secretive were this lot of their process operations and experimental procedures that they would have absolutely no intention of making public knowledge of anything that went wrong- because scientists can never be wrong can they? The claims that a replication of the “experiment”- ( oh so it was an experiment and not a normal process operation then) do not constitute the conditions that occurred in the controlled conditions of the plant?
The fact that the coroner points out the bright light explosion thus looking for an explanation from AW does not appear to have been followed up when Sigsmith provides the answer that this could have been an electricity flash. Given that people from Sutton Coldfield and Yardley saw this explosion, I think it rather unlikely that they would have observed such an event from such a distance.
It just surprises me that a phantom fag thrower hadn’t been blamed like that of the deaths in 1951- though of course , that was not proven either in that set of circumstances as to how Albright and Wilson staff had set out to work one morning, never to return home.
I have found no further information as to what bullshit explanation Albright and Wilson would eventually come up with.