Worker killed opening soup cooker

11:42am Friday 6th December 2002

A factory worker from Deptford died after half a tonne of red-hot spinach soup exploded, a court has heard.

Zachariah Conteh, aged 34, of Ship Street, suffered severe burns after prising open the lid of a pressure-cooker containing the Thai broth.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed the soup had sprayed 30 feet into the air when the vat was opened.

His widow, Lamrana Conteh, has announced she plans to sue the New Covent Garden Soup Company, where Mr Conteh, originally from Sierra Leone, was working.

Mr Conteh had been about to add extra ingredients to the soup, which was bubbling at about 105 degrees, West London Coroner's Court heard.

A safety system which should have warned him of the danger of opening the hatch was broken, and the soup sprayed in his face. He was rushed to a specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, but died a month later.

Colleague Abdullah Saleh, 42, was also hit by the blast and spent three weeks in hospital after the incident, on July 5, last year.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed the soup had sprayed 30 feet into the air when the vat was opened.

Engineering expert Dr Marc Loyez inspected the vat and concluded the top must have been opened by Mr Conteh.

He said: "The security system relied on a pressure transducer to tell it what the pressure in the vessel was. I found this had failed and did not work.

"It is possible Mr Conteh could have opened the lid before the proper time as a result of carelessness or workplace bravado."

HSE expert Anthony Lees queried how Mr Conteh could have opened the vat under such high pressure.

He said: "The steam, the noise and the difficulty would have prompted anyone trying to open it to desist."

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death on December 4.

Mrs Conteh said after the hearing: "This was the most appropriate verdict. We are now planning to sue the company."