Demolition of fire-damaged woodchip bunkers at Sonae’s Knowsley chipboard factory has now resumed following the death of a construction worker there on August 6.
The demolition work had been halted following the death of James Dennis Kay, 62, who worked for Andrew Connolly Demolition.
A Health & Safety Executive inquiry has been opened, while a post-mortem has proved inconclusive and it is still unclear exactly what happened, though the accident happened in a segregated area under the control of the demolition company.
Sonae Industria (UK) Ltd managing director Nigel Graham expressed the company’s deepest heartfelt condolences to Mr Kay’s family and said he was unable to speculate as how the accident happened.
“The demolition work ceased for nine days but restarted again on Monday August 15,” Sonae added.
“Although we closed our main operation for two days as a mark of respect, our production has been unaffected and we have continued to fulfil all of our customer orders.”
The Liverpool Daily Post says Mr Kay is believed to have suffered crush injuries while operating a cherry picker crane.
The death is the latest in a series of incidents to hit Sonae at Knowsley.
A major fire on June 9 has resulted in the halting of raw chipboard produc-tion until October, when it should be running at 80% capacity. Full capacity will be achieved in the first quarter of 2012.
Two machinery contractors died at the plant in December last year.
