Hot works fire leads to $170K fine

After earlier pleading guilty to a single charge of failing to provide and maintain a working environment that was safe and without risks to health, EnergyAustralia Yallourn Pty Ltd was sentenced in the Latrobe Valley County Court.

In November 2021, maintenance crews were performing hot works including angle grinding, oxy cutting and welding on several rusted transfer chutes in a fuel distribution house.

The workers had hosed down the area, performed a visual inspection and made sure they did not smell anything burning before leaving for their lunch break. Yet, only minutes later, an alarm alerted the power station's emergency response crews to a fire in the area.

Suppression deluge systems were activated, and firefighters were called, with it taking more than an hour to contain the blaze. The fire caused damage to a conveyer, surrounding chutes and roof, but no one was injured.

One of the workers had been assigned as fire watch for the works, a WorkSafe Victoria investigation found, but it was established practice that they did not need to continue monitoring the site during breaks or at the end of the day.

It was reasonably practicable, the court found, for EnergyAustralia Yallourn to have provided and maintained a system of work that ensured the area was, after being wetted down, assessed using a thermal imaging camera before any break and at the end of each day.

“The fire danger at this workplace was plainly obvious, particularly given the presence of highly flammable coal and coal dust in the area where these works were being performed,” WorkSafe Victoria Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said, noting that it was fortunate the incident hadn’t been much worse.

“While the offender had a variety of protocols in place for monitoring hot works, it is clear that they could and should have taken further steps to control this risk to workers and the surrounding community.”

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