Probe after gas explosion injures two workers

THE Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has launched an investigation to establish the cause of a gas explosion yesterday, which blew the roof off a bottling plant, injuring two workers.

It is understood the men were working near an acetylene cylinder at the Irish Oxygen Company’s Waterfall plant on the western outskirts of Cork city, which apparently leaked, triggering a massive blast just before 11.30am.

The blast, heard up to a half mile away, blew the roof off part of the factory and shattered its windows. It also triggered several small fires in an area where hundreds of gas cylinders are stored.

Residents of Halldene Avenue in Bishopstown said the explosion shook their homes.

“I was in my kitchen and I heard this sound like a sonic boom,” Cllr Mary Shields said. “And I said: ‘My goodness there must be something dreadful happening in the area because literally, the windows and the doors in the house shook.

“I got a big shock, it was quite frightening. So I assumed it was the oxygen factory and then of course I heard the ambulances and fire brigades going out the road,” she said.

Niamh Honohan, who works in the Curraheen Technology Park almost half a mile away, said she felt the ground shake and saw a smoke plume rise like a “mushroom cloud”.

Gardaí sealed off roads around the plant as two units of Cork city fire brigade, two fire crews from Ballincollig, two HSE ambulances, two rapid response vehicles staffed by advanced paramedics, a critical care doctor and a medical team from Cork University Hospital (CUH) rushed to the scene.

Paul Griffin, the assistant chief fire officer for Cork County, described it as a “substantial blast” and said the two injured workers, who were among four in the plant at the time, were lucky to be alive.

They had suffered non-life threatening injuries, including burns to their hands and faces, and were rushed to CUH. They are expected to make a full recovery.

Fire crews extinguished the fires quickly and then began to secure the other cylinders.

Emergency workers wore face masks amid concerns that asbestos in the damaged roof had been exposed.

Residents living within 100 metres of the explosion were initially advised to remain indoors.

But experts who examined the site said the asbestos was bound in cement and did not pose a health risk.

The Irish Oxygen Company, which was founded in 1949 by the well-respected Constant family, employs 16 people.

Its managing director, Finbarr Constant, said last night that it is too early to say what caused the accident, and that it is not yet clear how the company’s operations will be affected.

The company, which has two plants in Cork, produces oxygen and nitrogen gases by extraction from air, and acetylene gas chemically.

The gases are used mainly in welding and cutting metal, blanketing and inerting chemical reactions, purging pipelines, laboratory equipment, education and DIY.

Its main customers are industrial facilities including metal fabrication, maintenance, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, electronics, the motor trade, university and technology institutes, swimming pools, in addition to agriculture and DIY.