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21/06/2010
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Three firms have now been found guilty, at St Albans' Crown Court, of charges relating to the Buncefield oil storage depot explosion and fire on 11 December 2005. All now face unlimited fines.
 The companies are TAV Engineering (guilty of failing to protect workers and members of the public), Motherwell Control Systems 2003 (the same charge) and Hertfordshire Oil Storage (guilty of failing to prevent major accidents and limit their effects).
Hertfordshire Oil Storage also pleaded guilty to causing pollution to enter controlled waters underlying the vicinity around Buncefield.
Sentencing is planned to take place on 16 July 2010 at St Albans Crown Court.
Two companies have already pleaded guilty to charges over the incident: Total UK pleaded guilty to three charges; and British Pipeline Agency pleaded guilty to two.
In a statement, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Environment Agency said: "This was the biggest and most complex criminal inquiry we have worked on together – the product of many hundreds of hours of painstaking forensic investigation.
"When companies put workers and members of the public at risk and cause environmental damage, we will prosecute.
"When the largest fire in peacetime Europe tore through the Buncefield site on that Sunday morning in December 2005, these companies had failed to protect workers, members of the public and the environment.
"The scale of the explosion and fire at Buncefield was immense and it was miraculous that nobody died. Unless the high hazard industries truly learn the lessons, then we may not be that fortunate in future."
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Environment Agency – which are together responsible for regulating non-nuclear major hazardous industrial sites in the UK, under COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations 1999).
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Author
Brian Tinham
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