25/02/2011 - Firm fined £20,000 over man's burns
A construction firm has been fined £20,000 after a teenage worker suffered serious burns while working on a lighting tower.
The 18-year-old man was spraypainting the tower in a shed at an O'Keefe Construction site in Sevenoaks, Kent. He accidentally spilt some thinner chemical on his trousers and set off across the shed to get a change of clothes from his locker. As he walked past a gas burner being used for heating, the trousers caught fire.
Colleagues put the flames out with a hose after he ran out of the shed but the man, who did not want to be named, suffered serious burns to his legs, one arm and hand. He was in intensive care for six days after the incident, on October 26 2009, and had to stay in hospital for a further 10. He has since had to have skin grafts and been unable to work.
The Health and Safety Executive investigated after the incident and found health and safety problems at the shed. The safety precautions O'Keefe Construction had identified in a risk assesment were not put in place. Three years after that assessment, a management plan reinforced the need for the same precautions but they were still absent when the accident happened.
The company, of St Andrews House, Dreadnought Street, Greenwich, London, admitted breaking health and safety laws at a Sevenoaks Magistrates' Court hearing. It has been fined £20,000 and must pay £6,329 costs.
Copyright © Press Association 2011
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