A BUILDER died instantly when a can of foam filler he held in his hands exploded and ruptured his heart, a fatal accident inquiry heard yesterday.
James Thomson, 26, was working on a building site at Upperton, in Levenwick, Shetland, when the accident happened.
It is thought he was using a fan heater to warm up a batch of 15 canisters of foam filler shortly before one of them exploded. T
he canister that exploded was beyond its use-by date by two months.
Giving evidence, Dr James Grieve, a lecturer at Aberdeen University's pathology department, said the impact of the exploding can on the man's chest was "virtually unsurvivable".
Referring to his autopsy report, Dr Grieve told the inquiry the "high-energy impact" on the chest ruptured Mr Thomson's heart, causing blood to accumulate and preventing it from functioning.
The force of the impact was so strong that the can left a deep mark on Mr Thomson's skin, despite the fact he was wearing a thick fleece. There was also serious damage to his liver and pancreas and bruising to the left kidney. Bones were not damaged.
Dr Grieve said: "No-one could have done anything to repair the damage in sufficient time for the casualty to survive."
Detective Sergeant Lindsay Tulloch told the inquiry that foam had been "all over the place" when he attended the scene of the accident.
Mr Thomson, of Brae, Shetland, was lying on his back with paramedics attending. Death was declared an hour after police had been alerted.
Det Sgt Tulloch said police officers had seized 15 canisters of foam filler standing in front of a fan heater, which was switched off but was set at the highest temperature.
The fan and the canisters were sent to the Health and Safety Executive for examination.
He added that James Sandison, another worker on the site, told police Mr Thomson had been in the process of warming up cans of expanding foam to "make them easier to work".
Mr Sandison had been in another room when the accident happened and rushed to help Mr Thomson after hearing the explosion and shouts for help.
Mr Thomson's father and employer, Dennis Thomson, told the inquiry his son was a qualified joiner who had been working with him for seven years.
He had bought three cartons with 12 cans of foam each in November 2006 and placed them in an unheated storage container ready to use on the building site at Levenwick.
He said he was well aware that the best performance could be expected when the expanding foam was used at a temperature of between 15C and 20C.
Knowing this was difficult to achieve on a March day in Shetland, he said it was his experience to expect a "failure rate of 20 per cent of all the brands (of foam filler] available in Shetland".
He added: "We have never instructed our employees to heat the cans."
The inquiry continues.
