Roofing Work News Roundup – May, 2017

Here at D-marc we’re in the business of making work at height, namely roofing work, safer with our innovative rooftop barrier solutions.  As such, we keep a close eye on the news for stories about roof work and working at height in general so that we can provide our readers with useful and relevant information that will keep them up to date with what’s going on in our industry.  Once a month, we’ll publish a roundup of the news that affects our sector in one easy place so that readers can get a quick overview of the most important happenings over the past month.  If you have anything to add or know of any stories that you’d like us to cover, please don’t hesitate to let us know, either by email, on our Facebook Page or on our Twitter feed.

Three company directors have been handed jail sentences following the death of an employee who feel through the fragile roof of a warehouse in Harlow in April, 2015.  The metalwork company hired to repair the roof admitted an offence of corporate manslaughter while its sole director pleaded guilty to a safety offence.  The company was fined 400,000 and its director jailed for 8 months.  The company which owned the warehouse that needed the roof repairs carried out was fined a total of £660,000 and two of its directors jailed, one for a year and the other for 10 months.  It transpired that both the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Harlow District Council had issued warnings to the company about the dangers involved in repair work and the need for safety measures such as netting to be put in place but the warehouse owners hired a friend and his company to carry out the work without the netting or any other safety measures.  To make matters worse, the metalwork company carrying out the repairs had no experience of roofing work and did not carry out a risk assessment at the site before sending staff employed by his company onto the roof without having undergone the requisite training.

Emergency services were called to a primary school to rescue an eight year old girl who had climbed onto the school’s flat roof.  Her horrified mother happened upon the scene while driving past and saw that her daughter was right on the edge of the flat roof but, luckily, firefighters managed to bring her down safely.

In Huddersfield, a family of nine were lucky to escape without injury when a fire broke out in their kitchen.  The whole family (including an 11 year old child and a baby) escaped from a first floor window onto a flat roof and were rescued by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services.  It transpired that the two smoke alarms at the property were not working and several members of the family were treated for smoke inhalation.  Had the flat roof been not been robust enough to cope with the weight, this incident could have easily turned into a tragedy for the family involved.