Last week, it was reported that Alcohols Limited of Oldbury had been fined £277,000 and ordered to pay £25,000 costs for a serious fire in 2012. It appears that the blaze was blamed on “the new boy” moving dangerous chemicals around, yet the training and health and safety of the company were obviously shit to start with.
The prosecution delay was apparently criticised by the judge, and we have also seen similar unacceptable delays with the other large fire in the area from 2009 involving Rhodia/Solvay which took 7 years. The scale of fine however is not acceptable. This had a lasting human impact as revealed in this blog. It is also revealed that the worker who was burned by the fire has been paid off by the company , but not how much.
Ethyl acetate is a highly flammable substance, associated amongst other things with putting insects to sleep in killing jars. One could argue that the area in question is one large experimental area, where a lid is not put on the dangers to either humans or the environment.
The costs to the fire service, and therefore you and I as tax payers for this “little” accidental spillage are not revealed, but a recent FOI request that I submitted to West Midlands Fire Service about a separate but related issue which I will look at in a future blog post gives an insight into the generic costs of fighting a fire.
According to a Sandwell Council post incident report , “at its peak there were more than a hundred Fire Service personnel and 24 vehicle assets deployed at the scene.”
A cost of £7,594.35 is also revealed for Traffic management and SMBC legal costs as well as over £3,000 for emergency accommodation in the Sandwell report.
The problem with fines to companies of this scale is that we do not ever learn how they pay the fines, a one off cheque and paid to whom, or paid in instalments? How is this then divided up back to those who are owed the cash? How much for example of their paltry fine paid the wages of those involved with the prosecution, and the judge himself? One thing is for sure, the victims of the fire and those affected got very little in terms of a satisfactory conclusion. It could all happen again tomorrow.