Detectives are continuing to investigate whether there is any criminal liability for the collapse of a wall at a recycling plant in Birmingham that crushed five workers to death, a coroner has heard.
A team of 20 detectives is piecing together what happened when the men were buried under several tonnes of rubble at Hawkeswood Metal Recycling on the morning of 7 July.
Inquests for the dead, four of whom were from the Gambia and one from Senegal, were opened and adjourned at Birmingham coroner’s court on Wednesday.
The detective leading a joint police and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation gave an update on the “complexities” of the inquiry and said: “It’s an investigation to establish where there is criminal liability.”
The senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, Louise Hunt, said the investigation would take some time to conclude and adjourned the inquest.
DI Harry Harrison, of West Midlands police, told the coroner the recycling plant, which has been sealed off since the incident, could be handed back to Hawkeswood Metal as early as Thursday.
Harrison said: “Documentation has been seized from the company offices and statements taken from those on site at the time. Liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS] has commenced.”
It is believed all five men lived in Spain before moving to Britain and that all were married with children. They came separately to Birmingham, going on to work at Hawkeswood Metal through an external agency.
A sixth man suffered a broken leg but managed to pull himself free after tonnes of metal and concrete fell on the crew.
The identities of the dead men were taken from fingerprint records held with passport details by immigration authorities in Spain.
The Senegalese man was identified as Ousmane Kaba Diaby, 39; the other men were identified as Almano Kinteh Jammeh, 45; Bangally Tunkara Dukaray, 55; Saib Sumbundu Sillah, 42; and Mahamadou Jagana Jagana, 49.
It took two days for emergency crews to safely remove the rubble and recover the victims’ remains.
Tributes flooded in for the men from their families, friends and members of Birmingham’s 10,000-strong Gambian community.
West Midlands police and HSE officials are investigating what caused the structure – made up of several 1.5-tonne blocks – to collapse on the men. Detectives are expected to question the owners of the recycling site amid concerns about its health and safety record.
In February, there was a large fire at the 700-tonne scrap metal recycling plant. In April 2010, the firm was fined £50,000 for breaching health and safety regulations after a worker’s arm was broken when it got trapped in a piece of machinery.
