Blast victim airlifted to hospital
A WORKER suffered serious burns after an explosion at a Brighouse chemical container site.
The 25-year-old Asian man, who was from Huddersfield, is believed to have been cleaning a chemical container at Pack2Pack in Wood Street, Brighouse, when it exploded. He suffered severe burns to his groin and legs and had to be airlifted by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to a specialist burns unit at Pinderfields General Hospital in Wakefield.
Firefighters from Brighouse, Cleckheaton, Hunslet and Huddersfield dealt with the incident on Tuesday at 9.35am.
Brighouse firefighter Mark Williamson said the man was conscious but was in a lot of pain and was badly shaken.
"His colleagues were first on the scene and were dealing with him. There was no fire when we arrived but the man was in a bad way. He was in an extreme amount of pain and very shaken up," he said.
Police closed part of Wakefield Road, between the M62 and the town centre, to allow the helicopter to land. It is understood the man had been cleaning interim bulk containers when one exploded.
Watch manager Mic Holbrook, of Brighouse Fire Station, said: "We believe a chemical has been washed out and someone has been working on it when it's exploded. He suffered severe burns and had to be airlifted to Pinderfields.
"Because the container blew up there were no labels indicating the type of chemical that had been stored in it. We need to establish what chemical it was in the container so that the hospital know how to deal with his burns."
He said staff used a dry powder to extinguish the flames before firefighters arrived.
The Health and Safety Executive has been informed and is investigating the incident.
The site manager at Pack2Pack, Mr Crawford Pollock, said they could not comment on the incident.
"It is too early to comment but we are giving our full co-operation to the HSE," he said.
Acting police sergeant Chris Boyd, of West Yorkshire Police, said Wakefield Road was closed for about 20 minutes.
"It didn't cause any major disruption to traffic," he said. "The fire service investigation team are looking at the incident and because of the extent of the burns the HSE are investigating.
"It was a used container that exploded so it may well be a residual substance which has caused the problem."
Specialists trained in dealing with chemical, biological, radiology and nuclear incidents attended but were not required.
A spokesperson from the HSE said: "We are investigating. Specialists from our hazardous installation division were on site on Tuesday and again yesterday."
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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