A company director and two managers have been charged over a mill explosion in which four people died.

George Boden, the director of Wood Treatment Ltd, which ran Bosley Mill in Cheshire, has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter following the explosion and devastating fire at the mill in July 2015.

The firm has been charged as a corporate body with corporate manslaughter and both the firm and Boden have been charged with health and safety offences, along with two other managers.

Dorothy Bailey, 62, Derek Barks, 51, Derek Moore, 62, and Jason Shingler, 38, were killed in the disaster, with other workers left injured after the blast at the mill, which made wood chip products.

Jenny Hopkins, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service special crime and counter-terrorism division, said: “Following explosions at a wood flour mill in Bosley on Friday 17 July 2015, which led to the death of four people and injuries to a number of others, the Crown Prosecution Service has authorised charges.

“Cheshire police has been authorised by the CPS to charge Wood Treatment Limited with corporate manslaughter and George Boden, one of its directors, with gross negligence manslaughter.

“The company, Mr Boden and two others who were managers for the company have also been charged with health and safety offences.”

Boden and the two managers, Philip Smith and Peter Shingler, will appear at Stockport magistrates court on 2 December.

The explosion resulted in a 1,000C inferno that burned for days before the bodies of the victims were recovered from the wreckage of the mill buildings.

The mill dominated the village of Bosley, with many local residents working at the plant, which made wood products in a process producing wood flour, which is airborne and contains highly combustible particles of wood.

An investigation was carried out by Cheshire police and the Health and Safety Executive.

The full charges are that Wood Treatment Ltd is accused of four offences of corporate manslaughter relating to the deaths of Bailey, Barks, Moore and Shingler, and one offence of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees in breach the Health and Safety Act at Work Act 1974. Boden is charged with four offences of manslaughter by gross negligence, and one offence under the Health and Safety Act at Work Act.

Smith and Peter Shingler are both charged with an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.