AN ENGINEER at a factory where nine workers were killed questioned yesterday why nobody smelled the gas leak that caused the blast.
A public inquiry is being held into the Stockline explosion in Glasgow in May 2004. Nine people died and more than 30 were injured when a build-up of gas in the basement exploded, causing the former textile mill to collapse.
David Inglis,who insta
lled a gas tank at the factory in 1998, said he was surprised by the findings of the Health and Safety Executive.
He said: "I think that if there had been a massive amount of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas] in the basement, someone would have smelled it."
Mr Inglis, who was contracted to install the tank by Johnston Gas, said LPG had a "very detectable" smell, much stronger than that of other types of gas.
The engineer was asked by the inquiry chairman, Lord Gill, whether he had changed his view since giving police his statement following the disaster.
He replied: "I don't know what happened. I'm just saying that if there was an accumulation of gas, I would have thought someone would have smelt the gas."
ICL Plastics and ICL Tech were fined £400,000 last year after admitting health and safety breaches at the High Court in Glasgow.
The full article contains 224 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
