Vol. 79/No. 27      August 3, 2015

Daniel Timbers, 29, and Barry Joy, 56, were killed in a flash fire July 13 at Harford Attachments in this suburb of Norwich. According to news reports, the two were working in a confined area when a buildup of toxic fumes caught fire. Workers in other parts of the factory, which makes parts for excavators, rushed to the scene, but were unable to save them. Their bodies weren’t recovered until the next day, with police citing high levels of toxic chemicals.

It’s not yet clear what led to the accumulation of fumes or their ignition. An investigation is being carried out by local police and the Health and Safety Executive.

Four days later a massive explosion destroyed Wood Flour Mills in the village of Bosley, near Macclesfield. As of July 19, scores of rescue workers are still looking for four missing workers — Dorothy Bailey, 62, William Barks, 51, Jason Shingler, 38, and Derek Moore, 62 — who are believed to have been near the source of the blast.

The explosion was felt a mile away and some nearby houses were damaged, with six families not able to return home. Firefighters told the Manchester Evening News that temperatures reached up to 1,000°C as an inferno engulfed the mill. Some 5,000 liters of kerosene were released, leaching into the River Dane. The building is also known to have contained heating oil, acetylene and asbestos. Next to it is a silo containing highly flammable wood flour used for making laminate flooring.

Local officials had been to the site two weeks earlier in response to complaints about sawdust. There were previous fires at the mill in 2010 and 2012.

Company representatives have not commented on the disaster.

Workers in Hellesdon discussed the disaster at Harford Attachments with a team of communist workers from London who went door to door in the area July 18.

“It’s terrible what happened, but unfortunately it won’t be the last,” said a worker from a mobile phone repair shop who had worked with Joy in a previous job. He spoke to the Militant as he and his wife tidied up the dozens of bouquets that workers have brought to the fence by the plant in a makeshift memorial. “The bosses are always cutting corners with health and safety. They take all the money,” he said. “That’s why we’ve just got a union organized where I work.” He asked that his name not be used because “my company is vindictive.”

Stephen Carr, who works in a boiler factory organized by the UNITE union, said workers there routinely challenge unsafe conditions in face of the bosses’ attitude. “Until something goes wrong, the managers won’t deal with things,” he said. “We used to have a bonus system linked to the health and safety record, so people wouldn’t report things. But we got rid of it. Now people report everything,” strengthening the fight for safety on the job.
 
 
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