The Hamilton Coroner’s inquest into the death of fireman Derek Lovell at Icepak Coolstores at Tamahere is scheduled for a week starting on Monday, September 5.

Its focus will be on avoiding deaths in similar circumstances in the future.

Senior Station Officer Lovell died and seven other officers were seriously injured when leaking gas ignited while they were investigating an automatic fire alarm at the coolstore on April 5, 2008.

Dairy giant Fonterra has been given permission to sue the owners of the Tamahere coolstore that exploded in 2008 for $25 million worth of cheese that it lost in the blaze.

Fonterra has already filed papers against the lessee of the building, Waikato Coldstorage Ltd (formerly Icepak Coolstores Ltd), as well as Mobile Refrigeration Specialists Ltd, which carried out refrigeration work at the cool store.

Now Justice Rodney Hansen has allowed Fonterra to include the owners and lessors of the Tamahere plant, Icepak Group Ltd, as an additional defendant in the action.

The Tauranga-based refrigeration company fined more than $56,000 over the Icepak coolstore explosion at Tamahere will pay off its fine at the rate of $50 a week.

Mobile Refrigeration Specialists (MRS) was back in the Hamilton District Court last week seeking to have part of its fine remitted on the grounds of financial hardship.

MRS and Icepak Coolstores were fined $56,200 and $37,200 respectively when sentenced last December by Judge Robert Spear.

The Court of Appeal has declined an application by Mobile Refrigeration Specialists (MRS) for special leave to appeal against a fine and reparation order relating to the 2008 Icepak Coolstores fire at Tamahere.

MRS was responsible for the installation of a hydrocarbon-based refrigerant in the Tamahere coolstores, which exploded in an inferno in April 2008, killing fireman Derek Lovell and injuring several others.

MRS pleaded guilty in the Hamilton District Court to charges laid under the Health and Safety Act, and was fined $56,000 and ordered to pay reparation of $175,000.

The Waikato Times today apologised for inaccuracies in an August 20 story on a summary judgment application by Brian Liddell against Waikato Coolstorage, formerly Icepak Coolstores.

The deadly explosion at Icepak Coolstores’ Tamahere facility was caused by the lack of action of a hazardous goods inspector, a court has been told.

Fonterra is suing Icepak for about $25 million worth of cheese that went up in flames after the fatal explosion at its Tamahere coolstore in 2008.

Icepak Coolstores Ltd’s presence at its Tamahere site ends today [June 30].

A second appeal by Mobile Refrigeration Specialists against a $56,200 fine following the fatal Icepak Coolstores fire at Tamahere was dismissed this month.

Mobile Refrigeration Specialists, which unsuccessfully appealed against a $56,200 fine following the fatal Icepak Coolstores fire at Tamahere, has applied to take its case to the Court of Appeal.