Sainsbury's turns off all its coffee machines after freak explosion in supermarket café injures 15



Sainsbury's today switched off all its coffee machines that are the same make as the one that exploded like a bomb in one of its stores on Tuesday.



The explosion in the Farnborough, Hampshire, branch of the supermarket blasted a hole in a wall and injured 15 people.



Six people were taken to hospital with back and neck injuries.

Blast: The remains of the coffee machine that injured 15 people when it exploded at a Sainsbury's cafe in Farnborough, Hampshire, yesterday afternoon. The supermarket today switched off 158 similar mahcines

A 23-year-old woman sustained the most serious injuries with wounds to her head, arm, eye, back and neck.

The incident happened when the 'boiler' within the coffee machine failed due to over-pressurisation, a Sainsbury's spokeswoman explained.

This was caused by a failure of the pressure relief valve to operate. Heat continued to be supplied to the unit, causing it to malfunction.

Many of the coffee machines will now be back in use tomorrow because the fault could be present in only a minority of machines.

'The environmental health officer (EHO), technical representatives from the machine supplier, independent forensic engineers and Sainsbury's in-house engineering team have been investigating since Tuesday and have identified the cause of the problem,' the spokeswoman said.



'The supplier of the machines has confirmed that in 2009 a design amendment was made to the machine that could potentially allow this type of failure, and that the original design of equipment could not fail in the same way.



'Thirty two of our stores have the new design and these machines will remain out of service.

'The EHO has agreed that the machines in the remaining 126 stores, which are of the original design, are safe to use and can be brought back into service.'

Emergency services were called to the Sainsbury's cafe, in Farnsborough's Kingsmead Centre, following reports of an explosion at about 12.20pm yesterday.



Fifteen firemen were sent to the store and treated the wounded before they were taken by ambulance to Frimley Park Hospital, in Surrey.



The store was evacuated and reopened in the afternoon. The cafe remained closed.



Spill: The scene where the coffee machine exploded like a bomb

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Craig Mowat said: 'We were sent out to deal with the explosion but as there was no fire we administered first aid.



'The machine had been completely destroyed after a cylinder behind the machine blew up .



'It blew a hole in the wall and the coffee machine had exploded from where it was behind the counter.



'People had minor injuries to their necks and backs although it is unclear whether that was from scalding or the explosion itself.'

Couple Georgina Sharp and Aaron Brannan were at home next to the store when they were rocked by the explosion at lunchtime.



Miss Sharp, 18, a customer service assistant, said: 'We heard a bang, it sounded like something had hit the side of the house - it was like an Army shell going off in the distance.



'We also felt a vibration. Minutes later we heard sirens and when we went outside there were people everywhere.



'There were three ambulances, fire engines, and police cars. There was so many police we thought there had been a bomb.'