Primark fire in belfast

[Milltown Row2]

Believe the actual extension wasn't too badly affected by the blaze, if not the smoke. I would walk past it every night up Castle Street after midnight home from work and they would be still battering away, seemed a 24-hour job for the last year or so, plenty of south Derry boys judging by the accents. That being the case, hopefully they can rebuild quickly. There are a few empty buildings in city centre, maybe Primark can use one of them in meantime so nobody loses their job

There's a decent size building over in East Belfast not being used

[Therealdonald]

Jesus Franko, this is hardly the tread to be pushing that argument - as its the paying attention to / following the guidance on the forms that actually makes all the difference.   

No Franko has hit the nail on the head here. Paperwork fixes nothing. It just makes someone responsible.

[Orior]

Jesus Franko, this is hardly the tread to be pushing that argument - as its the paying attention to / following the guidance on the forms that actually makes all the difference.   

No Franko has hit the nail on the head here. Paperwork fixes nothing. It just makes someone responsible.

Careful. That requires a hard hat.

[Franko]

Jesus Franko, this is hardly the tread to be pushing that argument - as its the paying attention to / following the guidance on the forms that actually makes all the difference.   

Why not?  What thread should I do it on?  There were no injuries or fatalities so I don't see it as being in any way disrespectful.

Regarding the part in bold  - In all honesty, it's not really.  It's about having some common sense and not being careless.  If you have to read the risk assessment to know not to leave the blowtorch on when you go for your tea, you probably shouldn't be there.

[RadioGAAGAA]

It's about having some common sense and not being careless.  If you have to read the risk assessment to know not to leave the blowtorch on when you go for your tea, you probably shouldn't be there.

Exactly.

The world would be an awful lot better place if there was room for common sense within law. Of course, lawyers couldn't have that. Hence drowning in paperwork.

[Smokin Joe]

Who was the contractor?

[Tony Baloney]

It's about having some common sense and not being careless.  If you have to read the risk assessment to know not to leave the blowtorch on when you go for your tea, you probably shouldn't be there.

Exactly.

The world would be an awful lot better place if there was room for common sense within law. Of course, lawyers couldn't have that. Hence drowning in paperwork.

If it's a high risk activity ie working with a source of ignition on top of a building full of people and flammable goods, then it wouldn't be just a matter of reading a risk assessment and you'd be required to put control measures in place. In our place all hot work requires a fire watcher.

[WT4E]

Believe the actual extension wasn't too badly affected by the blaze, if not the smoke. I would walk past it every night up Castle Street after midnight home from work and they would be still battering away, seemed a 24-hour job for the last year or so, plenty of south Derry boys judging by the accents. That being the case, hopefully they can rebuild quickly. There are a few empty buildings in city centre, maybe Primark can use one of them in meantime so nobody loses their job

Been a bad year for Derry to be fair

[bennydorano]

Jesus Franko, this is hardly the tread to be pushing that argument - as its the paying attention to / following the guidance on the forms that actually makes all the difference.   

Why not?  What thread should I do it on?  There were no injuries or fatalities so I don't see it as being in any way disrespectful.

Regarding the part in bold  - In all honesty, it's not really.  It's about having some common sense and not being careless.  If you have to read the risk assessment to know not to leave the blowtorch on when you go for your tea, you probably shouldn't be there.

Not because of sensitivities but because it's a strange position to push in this instance. You're arguing about H&S gone mad on a thread where not following H&S procedure has directly lead to this situation. Risk Assessments & procedures are there for good reason and not all workers are rocket scientists so paying heed might by a good idea. The person allegedly the cause of it may well be an apprentice who needs all the guidance he can get.

[Franko]

Jesus Franko, this is hardly the tread to be pushing that argument - as its the paying attention to / following the guidance on the forms that actually makes all the difference.   

Why not?  What thread should I do it on?  There were no injuries or fatalities so I don't see it as being in any way disrespectful.

Regarding the part in bold  - In all honesty, it's not really.  It's about having some common sense and not being careless.  If you have to read the risk assessment to know not to leave the blowtorch on when you go for your tea, you probably shouldn't be there.

Not because of sensitivities but because it's a strange position to push in this instance. You're arguing about H&S gone mad on a thread where not following H&S procedure has directly lead to this situation. Risk Assessments & procedures are there for good reason and not all workers are rocket scientists so paying heed might by a good idea. The person allegedly the cause of it may well be an apprentice who needs all the guidance he can get.

That's exactly my point.  No amount of risk assessments are going to stop that.  But when an incident like this happens, you always have the H&S brigade crowing about some other form that could have been filled in to stop the like of this.  Which is total nonsense.

Quite honestly, the appropriate response here is to sack the person responsible.  Anyone who does something like that has no business on a building site.  But the actual response will be to introduce more method statements/codes of practice/signage/toolbox talks which say 'all blowtorches must be turned off when unattended'. 

[brokencrossbar1]

How about waiting for the investigation before coming to any conclusions. The likelihood is that this is human error and it is correct that no amount of form filling will prevent that but the thing is that if a bit more care is exercised when 'form filling' or more specifically training the people in the jobs so that the forms can be be filled then less accidents will happen. Safety at work laws are pretty stringent deliberately but they do not account for human error and also lack of human consideration.

[seafoid]

How about waiting for the investigation before coming to any conclusions. The likelihood is that this is human error and it is correct that no amount of form filling will prevent that but the thing is that if a bit more care is exercised when 'form filling' or more specifically training the people in the jobs so that the forms can be be filled then less accidents will happen. Safety at work laws are pretty stringent deliberately but they do not account for human error and also lack of human consideration.

Fires are a fact of life. This is why there is property insurance.
Thankfully nobody died in this case.

[Insane Bolt]

How about waiting for the investigation before coming to any conclusions. The likelihood is that this is human error and it is correct that no amount of form filling will prevent that but the thing is that if a bit more care is exercised when 'form filling' or more specifically training the people in the jobs so that the forms can be be filled then less accidents will happen. Safety at work laws are pretty stringent deliberately but they do not account for human error and also lack of human consideration.

Reminds me of the classic line......computer error will never replace human stupidity 😂

[johnnycool]

Jesus Franko, this is hardly the tread to be pushing that argument - as its the paying attention to / following the guidance on the forms that actually makes all the difference.   

No Franko has hit the nail on the head here. Paperwork fixes nothing. It just makes someone responsible.

Careful. That requires a hard hat.

And goggles and gloves.

[Rufus T Firefly]

Believe the actual extension wasn't too badly affected by the blaze, if not the smoke. I would walk past it every night up Castle Street after midnight home from work and they would be still battering away, seemed a 24-hour job for the last year or so, plenty of south Derry boys judging by the accents. That being the case, hopefully they can rebuild quickly. There are a few empty buildings in city centre, maybe Primark can use one of them in meantime so nobody loses their job

How far did the extension go back down Castle Street, Red? From my view point this morning, looking down Fountain Street towards it, there seems to be considerable damage - certainly at roof level - just at the Fountain Street junction, which is a good bit back from the front.