A CHEMICAL company is to be prosecuted after an explosion on its site.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Environment Agency has charged Shanks Chemical Services, near Hartlepool, with five offences. The company will appear before Hartlepool Magistrates' Court on July 7.
The charges relate to an explosion on the site at Tofts Farm Industrial Estate, in Seaton Carew, in March last year, when 50 firefighters had to bring the blaze under control.
Firefighters said a drum containing a self-heating mixed chemical had exploded and set alight, spreading to other drums.
Two charges by the HSE allege that the company "failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of its employees in connection with the waste transfer operations involving storage and handling of a dangerous substance, namely lithium/copper strip". It is also alleged to have exposed its workers to the substance.
The Environment Agency said Shanks contravened its waste management licence and kept a chemical without adequate storage.
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