A MAN watched in horror as his workmate was engulfed in flames in a York underground sewage chamber, an inquest jury heard.

Dennis Latter, 61, died in Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, more than two weeks after the accident at Huntington sewage pumping station on July 1 last year.

A post-mortem examination found that Mr Latter, from Nottingham, had died from multiple organ failure, caused by septicaemia, which had been brought on by burn and blast injuries.

Mr Latter worked for Galliford Northern, which had been contracted by Yorkshire Water.

Gary Andrew Dames, who worked under Mr Latter, told the York inquest that the pair had been working on removing a set of bolts from a T-shaped pipe joint within the chamber over the previous two days.

On both days they had lowered a gas meter into the chamber before entering it, to test for gases. It had detected nothing.

On the third day, they had decided to use an angle-grinder to remove the remainder of the bolts. But that day they did not test the gas before they started.

The grinder was plugged into the mains.

Mr Dames said: "Dennis went down and I passed the grinder down to him. The grinder started and then I saw flames on his coat and I told him. He started up trying to bat it out and it just engulfed him.

"I was looking over the top. It was like a gas fire to start with, then it just engulfed him when it started up.

"I tried to get him out but I couldn't, there was too much smoke coming out."

Mr Latter managed to get out on a ladder and Mr Dames helped pull him out and took him to hospital.

Mr Dames said he had not been aware there was an oxygen pipe in the chamber.

Under cross-examination, he said he had never had any formal training about using the gas meter. It had never been explained to him what the meter was looking for and how dangerous it might be.

He knew that if the meter bleeped rapidly he shouldn't enter the chamber.

Patrick Murphy Ferguson, the general foreman, who was above Mr Latter and Mr Dames, said he had attended a meeting with his boss - site agent Gary Newbury - and three men from Yorkshire Water in June. The work at Huntington was discussed then, he said.

He said the oxygen pipe was not discussed and nothing had been said to him about oxygen risks in the chamber.

He admitted permits were usually issued to enter chambers, but this was not done at Huntington because Galliford and Yorkshire Water had a "friendly relationship".

He admitted that the gas meter only stretched down for two or three feet into the chamber and that the chamber was about eight feet deep.

The hearing continues