Alert electrician escapes gassing in the Midlands

A quick-thinking electrician cheated death after being sent down to work in a gas-filled basement.

Birmingham magistrates heard how the spark realised something was wrong and escaped from the room before he was overcome.

Building owners Denso Manufacturing Midlands released toxic carbon dioxide into the basement from 11 large cylinders as part of plans to decommission a fire suppression system.

The Denso employees did not realise the gas was heavier than air and could not escape from the room creating a potential death trap.

The court heard that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air was well above the level liable to cause lack of consciousness. Had the contract electrician lapsed into unconsciousness it is unlikely that he would have survived.

Denso of Minworth, Sutton Coldfield, was fined  £28,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,278.

HSE inspector Ed Fryer said: “Quite clearly the lack of any risk assessment whatsoever enabled a very dangerous situation to develop. Management arrangements for the health and safety of employees and non-employees were grossly inadequate.

“It would be too frightening to speculate what the consequences might have been, not only for the two employees or the contract electrician but for anybody who unwittingly entered that basement after the gas had been released."