The scene of the gas explosion in 2023.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Two fires had broken out at a Shepparton recycling plant in the month before a gas explosion that injured six people, a court has heard.
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Rose & Co Services Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to charges of failing to provide a safe work environment and failing to provide handling dangerous goods training.
The charges stem from a sudden explosion and fire at its former Shepparton North recycling plant on May 2, 2023, where six of 14 people working on site were injured.
WorkSafe prosecutor Annie Yuan told the court the explosion started a fire in a shredder at the recycling plant on the Goulburn Valley Hwy, which spread to a radius of 18m.
The shredder was used to recover scrap metal from various items including fire extinguishers, gas bottles and aerosol cans by cutting them into small pieces.
Ms Yuan said the most likely ignition source was sparks from steel aerosol cans being processed in the shredder, because most of them were still filled with “extremely flammable” gasses that “may explode if heated” when they were being processed.
The court heard less than one per cent of aerosol cans had been punctured, despite them needing to be emptied to be recycled.
Ms Yuan told the court employees said there had been two fires in the shredder not long before the explosion — one from the day before and one a month prior — however, there had been no change to work processes.
Two workers were flown to the burns unit at Melbourne’s The Alfred hospital, and four were taken to Goulburn Valley Health.
Two workers were airlifted to the burns unit at The Alfred.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
In a victim impact statement read to the court, one of the airlifted victims said he spent a month and a half in the burns unit, and needed laser treatment after 30 per cent of his body was burned.
The court heard he had nerve and structural damage to his ears, needed multiple grafting procedures, and had been suffering with chronic pain and a “range of psychological issues”.
Ms Yuan said the man had been working at the shredding station for about two weeks before the explosion; however, he hadn’t received any handling dangerous goods training.
In a different victim impact statement, one of the workers said they now had an “overwhelming fear of fire or flames”, a “shattered sense of safety” and a “growing storm of mental health problems”.
Another worker said in their victim impact statement they now suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and panic attacks when they were near heat or flames.
The court heard it was “triggering” for them to feel heat cooking dinner, and they were “angry this even occurred in the first place”.
Ms Yuan said the explosion was “clearly foreseeable”, and Rose & Co showed a “disregard for employee safety”.
She said it was “not difficult to have measures in place”, and it was “more luck than good planning” no-one died.
There were 14 people working on site when the explosion happened.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Representing herself as the sole director of the company, Heather Elgin told the court the shredder that started the fire had since been disassembled.
Ms Elgin’s father — who was working in the factory and was the other victim airlifted to The Alfred after the explosion — described her as “honest, caring, dedicated and hard-working” in a character reference he read to the court.
He said Ms Elgin was helping care for her mother who was terminal with stage four cancer, and died five days after the explosion.
He said she “didn’t get a chance to grieve” her mother because the “family business was in shambles”.
Ms Elgin told the court Rose & Co hadn’t been operating properly since the explosion and was “in the process of trying to find somewhere to set up”, but had struggled with this due to stigma from the explosion.
The court heard Rose & Co hadn’t been operating properly since the explosion in May 2023.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
She said the company had been in the niche business of decommissioning gas bottles and fire extinguishers since 2016, but had only started working with aerosols about 12 months before the explosion.
She said once the business was up and running again it would no longer be working with aerosols.
Ms Elgin said she had to stand down the rest of her family who were still employees in December 2024 because she could no longer afford to pay them, and she was now Rose & Co’s only employee.
Magistrate Simon Zebrowski said this was “not a case of 20/20 hindsight”, and there was a “high risk” of an explosion occurring.
“The measures they failed to take were simple and cost-effective,” he said.
Mr Zebrowski acknowledged Ms Elgin showed genuine remorse, and the company was now “suffering as a result of its own actions”.
Mr Zebrowski fined Rose & Co $30,000 for failing to provide a safe work environment, and $5000 for failing to provide handling dangerous goods training.
He also ordered the company pay $5292 in legal costs.
