Oil drum safety alert after death of worker

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has been urged to issue an immediate safety alert about the opening of empty oil drums, because a young apprentice was killed in a workplace explosion.

Cork City Coroner’s Court was told yesterday that Donal Scanlon, 21, of Clashmore, Co Waterford, a second-year apprentice at B&C Services, based at the Foxhole Industrial Estate, in Youghal, Co Cork, suffered fatal head injuries in a blast at the plant.

He was using a plasma torch to cut the lid off an empty, 45-gallon oil drum on November 18, 2015.