A WORKMAN responsible for giving the green light to carry out work in a well was not authorised to do so because his qualification had lapsed, an inquest has heard.

Christopher Gough, a senior operator for Yorkshire Water at their Tadcaster Treatment site was in charge of issuing a work permit for Michael Jennings to carry out work on the day he suffered 86 per cent burns.

The company’s three stage safety procedure involved Mr Jennings completing a risk assessment form and his colleague, David Jones, completing a Method Statement before work took place.

The two forms were reviewed by Mr Gough, who completed the final stage and issued a permit to the two maintenance fitters on July 20, 2015.

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However, an inquest at Selby Civic Centre heard Mr Gough, who had begun to work at the site around a month previously, was not qualified to do so because his qualification on working in confined spaces had run out in January.

Although he was considered competent and an investigator from the Health and Safety Executive said he had a good knowledge of his work, he was not qualified to issue permits.

Mr Jennings and Mr Jones, who was assisting the 55-year-old above ground, were tasked with removing a valve from a decommissioned dry well at the site, which used oxygen to treat effluent from Samuel Smiths brewery before it passed into the River Wharfe.

The pair described on the forms how they would not be using anything more than spanners to remove the valve.

However, the eight bolts had corroded and Mr Jennings used an angle grinder to remove them.

Due to an enriched oxygen environment, the sparks created by the machine started a fire which engulfed Mr Jennings, from Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, in a fireball and he died two days later in hospital.

Mr Gough said the workmen had not mentioned using an angle grinder before they carried out the work, and if they had, he would have carried out a further risk assessment applied to any “hot work” taking place underground.

The witness also told the inquest he had not been made aware of a near miss report filed in 2014 when other workmen had tried to go into the same well to remove pumps, but had found it had a larger than normal amount of oxygen inside and had to ventilate it for 24 hours.

The inquest continues.