HSE fines steelmaker £1.3 million for blast deaths

PORT TALBOT, United Kingdom—The Health and Safety Executive has fined steelmaker Corus U.K. Ltd. £1.333 million ($2.6 million) for the deaths of three workers in a blast at its Port Talbot site in Wales in 2001.

Corus was fined £1.333 million and ordered to pay £1.74 million ($3.31 million)in costs following charges brought by the HSE under the 1974 Health and Safety Act.

In Swansea Crown Court, the company pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to ensure the safety of its employees and others.

The blast in a furnace at Corus' Port Talbot plant on November 8, 2001, was the result of "systematic corporate management failure at the Port Talbot works," the HSE's director for Wales, Terry Rose, said in a statement.