Gas network operator fined ￡5m

摘要

Northern Gas Networks (NGN) has been fined ￡5 million after a fire and gas explosion killed a pensioner in her home in West Yorkshire and put nearby care home residents at risk. The fine equates to 4.1% of the most recent pre-tax profit made by the company. The HSE has warned gas network operators to "take the opportunity to learn from this tragic incident". The fire started on 11 February 2019 in Mirfield, Kirklees. Searching the property, which was still on fire, West Yorkshire Fire Service found the homeowner, Elena Frunza. She died the following morning in hospital. The HSE's investigation found that the gas escaped from a fractured six-inch cast iron main running under the carriageway to the front of the property. The main did not appear on NGN's drawings and consequently had not been maintained in accordance with the Pipelines Safety Regulations 19961. The HSE was not able to identify what ignited the gas. Neil Casey, the HSE's lead inspector, said that NGN "failed to follow its own safety procedures, in this case requiring the prompt and effective investigation and correction of anomalies in their records." He told HSB that there were "five periods of time when the presence of network anomalies could have been identified, which had they been fully investigated, would have identified that there were two parallel gas mains at the location."