Three separate investigations were under way last night at the Irish ISPAT plant in Cork Harbour where a 53-year-old employee lost his life in a fire yesterday.
The dead man was named as Mr Thomas Mulcahy, of The Crescent, Gardiner's Hill, Cork. His death brings to three the number of workers who have died at the plant since 1993.
The company issued a three-line statement without giving details of how the fire began or the attempts to rescue Mr Mulcahy. It is understood that colleagues tried unsuccessfully to reach him as he attempted to break through a Perspex window in a smoke-filled corridor.
The fire broke out in an office building away from the main production facility and close to a quality-control laboratory at about 2 a.m. The laboratory was destroyed in a subsequent explosion. When rescuers finally reached Mr Mulcahy, a quality control technician, efforts to revive him failed and he was pronounced dead at the South Infirmary Hospital at 4.30 a.m.
Ten fire brigade units joined a Naval Service fire unit to help bring the fire under control.
Inspectors from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Cork County Council began investigations yesterday.
The original planning permission under which the plant operates was issued by the county council, and its environmental officer, Mr Declan Daly, will oversee one of the investigations.
The EPA will also report on the accident, but the major findings will be issued by the HSA. According to the EPA, there have been 15 pollution incidents at Irish ISPAT since June 1st, 1999. In the most recent, the company was threatened on January 10th with a High Court injunction forcing its closure unless dust emissions containing lead particles were dealt with.
The company is awaiting an integrated pollution licence from the EPA. On November 29th last year, ISPAT was prosecuted in the District Court by the HSA in respect of the death the previous year of Mr John Murphy who was killed when he fell from a crane. The company pleaded guilty to breaches of safety regulations and was fined.
The chairman of Cork County Council, Mr John Mulvihill, last night called for the Government's file on the plant to be reopened and said there should be an investigation at the highest level into the pledges made by ISPAT when it took over Irish Steel in 1995.
"A lot of State money was put into it and they in turn were supposed to be putting in a major investment. I would like to know more about that - the workers certainly don't seem to know too much about it."
According to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the company has met its investment pledges.
Mr Dan Boyle, local Green Party councillor, said hard decisions would have to be taken by the Government if it was shown that the safety of ISPAT workers had been compromised.
Expressing "extreme concern" at the latest incident, Mr Boyle called for the release into the public domain of all agreements entered into by the company with State agencies.