// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Water firm pleads guilty after four killed in blast
Four men - (L-R) Luke Wheaton, Ray White, James Vickery and Mike James - died in the explosion at Avonmouth Sewage Treatment Plant in December 2020
A water firm has pleaded guilty to health and safety charges after an explosion at one of its sites killed four workers, including a teenage apprentice.
Luke Wheaton, 16, Ray White, 57, Brian Vickery, 63, and Mike James, 64, died in the blast in a silo at Wessex Water's treatment site in Avonmouth, Bristol, in December 2020.
An Avon and Somerset Police investigation into manslaughter was dropped in 2024 but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) undertook its own investigation to determine if criminal offences had been committed under health and safety laws.
At a hearing at Bristol Magistrates' Court earlier, Wessex Water pleaded guilty to three charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The charges were failing, between 2013 and 2020, to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees, failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of someone other than an employee and failing to comply with a health and safety notice issued in 2021.
The explosion took place in a silo containing biosolids – recycled organic matter used by farmers as agricultural fertiliser.
The four workers who died were on the roof of the silo when the explosion happened.
The workers were on the roof of the silo when it exploded
It is understood James was a contractor working at the site, while Vickery and White were employees of Wessex Water and Wheaton an apprentice at the firm.