Bin lorry claim over factory oven

An investigation into the cause of the blast is under way

The chairman of the factory where nine people died in an explosion admitted one of its gas ovens was built from parts for a dustbin lorry.

But Campbell Downie, 69, insisted the makeshift oven was "extremely robust" and did not cause the disaster in Maryhill, Glasgow, last week.

He said the brick-lined furnace, which was installed a decade ago, was found intact among the rubble on Saturday.

It was one of two gas ovens and four electric ovens at the ICL factory.

The ovens have been a key focus of the inquiry into the cause of Tuesday's tragedy.

The chairman spoke after former ICL Plastics employee Jim Fletcher told newspapers: "Everybody in the factory knew it was a bin lorry - you couldn't mistake it - we all had a laugh when they said they were going to turn it into a gas oven."

ICL was responsible for carrying out safety checks on all its ovens under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

'Early stages'

Strathclyde Police and Health and Safety Executive officials have been investigating the blast and sifting through the rubble at Maryhill.

Mr Downie said: "This brick-lined oven is extremely robust and was designed to highly innovative and professional standards.

"We used the strong casing you would find on a typical garbage truck obtained from a distributor of refuse truck parts.

"Its ventilation, circulation and heating system was designed and built by gas engineers to a higher specification than prevailing industry standards.

"This oven couldn't have caused the explosion because I believe it has been found intact at the scene yesterday so it's a bit of a red herring."

Detective Superintendent Jim Porteous, who is leading the probe, refused to be drawn on the cause of the blast.

He said: "At this early stage we have an open mind and we're not going to speculate on a possible cause of the blast."

The body of Timothy Smith, 31, from Johnstone in Renfrewshire, was the last of the nine victims to be recovered from the rubble on Friday.