It’s now one year and 23 days since an explosion at the El Pecos Restaurant in Maraval left one man—John Soo Ping Chow—dead and 11 people injured and traumatised.
El Pecos’ owners suffered $2.1 million in losses of building and stocks and further loss of earnings during rebuilding.
The family of Soo Ping Chow, who died four months after the explosion on June 5, 2015, at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, are still trying to come to terms with their loss and are waiting for someone to be held accountable.
Others who were injured are still recuperating and are also awaiting justice.
The site of the fire has long been cleared of rubble and owners of El Pecos have managed to rebuild their business, but questions about what really happened that day and whether there was neglect or a breach of regulations by the gas supplier remain unanswered.
A copy of the official fire investigation report from the Fire Service into the El Pecos explosion obtained stated there was a “leakage of gas from the delivery line of the North Plant LPG truck.”
However, the report compiled by Ishmael Noel FS/O #2498 deemed the fire “accidental”, saying “the most probable cause of the fire was as a result of ignition to a mixture of LPG and air, within the rear passageway near the El Pecos LPG cylinders.”
The investigation done by the Fire Service spanned the period February 5 -24, 2015, and the investigation involved the following organisations, according to the report: The T&T Fire Service, The Police Service, The Electricity Commission, The Ministry of Energy, North Plant LPG Co-operative Society Ltd.
Police officers under the supervision of ASP Smith, “took responsibility for securing the North Plant LPG delivery vehicle and all of its apparatus and contents.”
No one has been held accountable for the explosion as the investigation remains incomplete.
Investigations by the GML Enterprise Desk revealed that the assessment of the nozzle of the LPG delivery hose used by North Plant LPG Co-operative Society Ltd, which was sent to the Forensic Science Centre to determine if it generated “sufficient sparks to ignite a mixture of LPG and air,” remains outstanding.
Calls to the director of the Forensic Science Centre and her assistant to find out what was the status of the tests to be done went unanswered.
The GML desk learned from a source at the centre that the samples would have been sent to the chemistry department, but they could not say why it was taking so long.
To compound matters, a year to the day, on February 4, 2016, the very same supplier, North Plant LPG, was delivering gas to Kleen Rite Dry Cleaners in Mucurapo Road when there was a similar explosion. The driver of the LPG truck in both instances was the same person, Neville Rampersad.
Richard Camacho of El Pecos said since the fire he had changed his supplier, but he is concerned about the length of time it has taken to complete the forensic investigation. He said: “We’re waiting like everybody else before we move forward.”
President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association Gregory Aboud said: “It is worrisome there is as yet no conclusion to the investigation.” He is concerned that it may happen a third time with even worse consequences.
Silence from NP
But there’s been a deafening silence from North Plant on both explosions.
Several calls were made to the company’s CEO Kerry Maharaj since early February but there was no response. On February 15, after leaving several messages and placing several calls, he responded briefly saying: “I just came out of a board meeting, I am going to see my lawyer.”
Asked for an interview, he said he had a “busy week” and was unable to grant one. But he gave the assurance that the company was “drafting a statement to send out to the media.”
Thirteen days later, no statement was forthcoming and all calls to his cell phone were met with the same message, “I am in a meeting.”
Energy Minister forms committee to probe
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Nicole Olivierre has set up a committee comprising members of the Ministry of Energy, the Fire Service, the Police Service and the Occupational Health and Safety Authority to investigate the El Pecos and Kleen Rite fires.
The committee has been mandated among other things to determine what went wrong—Why was there a recurrence? Were there violations? Was there need for housekeeping?
The committee’s first step was to visit North Plant’s base at Gaston Street, Chaguanas, where they met with company officials and inspected the plant.
North Plant supplies 17-20 per cent of LPG to the market. The rest, 80 per cent or over, is supplied by Ramco. Officials from both companies are members of the Liquefied Petroleum Dealers Association which works hand in hand with NP and the Ministry of Energy on guidelines for the industry.
LPG guidelines
While the GML desk has not been able to get an interview with North Plant executives on the operating guidelines, Ramco’s General Manager Lochan Samsundar said there were clear guidelines from the Ministry of Energy on the procedure to be followed:
• Before filling a tank the provider needs to ensure that the tank is properly certified or recertified for use. The stamp with the date indicating this is usually at the top of the tank, on the shroud which protects the tank.
• The provider is also required to conduct a physical inspection of the tank to ensure that it is not corroded and there are no physical defects.
• Checks must be made to ensure there is no combustible material within ten feet of the storage tank.
• Once the checks are done, the hose can be connected to begin the filling process. But even before the filling begins, checks must be made for leaks in the hose.
Samsundar explained that, in addition, Ramco sends technicians to an LPG school in Florida to be trained and certified.
He said the driver and helper were also trained so if something happened they knew what to do.
He said time and money must be spent to ensure that safety was built into the process, since the “responsibility comes down to us as the filler.”
While the Ministry of Energy is the authority to certify premises under the Petroleum Act, there is also a responsibility which rests with the OSH Authority.
Section 9 of the OSH Act states that “the occupier of every industrial establishment shall—take special care to ensure that plant and equipment used therein are of such integrity and that such adequate safety systems exist as to prevent the occurrence of fugitive emissions not conforming with an approved standard.”
Section 10 of the act also imposes responsibility on the employee while at work to (a) take reasonable care for the safety and health of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work; (b) as regards any duty or requirement imposed on his employer to co-operate with him as far as necessary to ensure that that duty or requirement is performed or complied with; and (c) to report to his employer any contravention under this act or any regulations made, the existence of which he knows.
Penalties: A person who refuses to comply with subsection (1) commits a health and safety offence and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Industrial Court.
MSJ leader David Abdulah said the OSH Agency had been “woefully neglected for the last five years.” He said the agency needed to be “properly resourced so that there are qualified inspectors to do the work.”
If there is an accident, he said, there must be inspectors to go out and investigate. “Inspectors must also follow up on complaints from workers. But the fact is that there are not adequate inspectors.”
Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus could not be reached for comment.
Abdulah said moving forward, NP should ensure that all firms involved in the distribution of fuel met established standards. “We need to ensure that health and safety and environmental standards are observed to avoid loss of life or injury to workers.”
The onus, Abdulah said, was also on the suppliers of gas to take responsibility to ascertain they maintained OSH standards.
Safety and training
Asked about enforcement of safety and training in the industry, NP said: “NP and its LPG distributors are guided by the NFPA 58 Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code 2014 as it relates to the training, health, safety and environmental matters concerning LPG.
“LPG distributors are fully responsible for the conduct and operation of their business operations.”
It explained that both itself and by extension LPG distributors are guided by the NFPA58 Liquefied Petroleum Gas Code 2014 as it relates to “training, health, safety and environmental matters concerning LPG.
(NFPA58 is the industry benchmark for safe LP-Gas storage, handling, transportation, and use. NFPA 58 mitigates risks and ensures safe installations, to prevent failures, leaks, and tampering that could lead to fires and explosions.)
Asked whether checks are done on plant and equipment of LPG suppliers, NP said, “The inspection of LPG equipment and the monitoring of compliance with relevant safety requirements are the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries.”
NP, we are told, has a “checklist” that must be followed by LPG distributors and that NP issues safety certificates to LPG distributors when their trucks have passed relevant inspections.
NP said every effort was made to “confirm on a regular basis” that there was compliance with its safety standards by its LPG distributors.
Currently there are no mandatory standards in force for LPG hoses and ancillary equipment to be used by licensed distributors and commercial customers. The only approved standard is for pigtails and flexible hose connectors and that’s for domestic use.
In 2014, then energy minister Kevin Ramnarine said the ministry had developed, in consultation with stakeholders, applicable regulations for the use, conveyance, and storage of LPG under the Petroleum Act.
Those new regulations outlined the general requirements for filling, handling, transportation and storage of LPG with respect to the cylinders and installation of the tank systems.
Pending the resolution of legal issues, he had indicated that steps would have been taken to put them into law. Stakeholders spent several months going through the regulations. However, they are still in the process of being prepared, although the ministry admits they are necessary to “provide an acceptable degree of protection from the hazards caused by accidents, leaks and other activities.”
Bureau of Standards
The Bureau of Standards was contacted for information on its oversight of the critical LPG industry. A senior official, Theodore Reddock, said the bureau’s interest in such activity was with the “inspection of filling plants to ensure that the right quantities are metered.” He confirmed that since last year’s incident at El Pecos “we were trying to give some consideration to what needed to be done.”
He said while the bureau could be “part of the development of standards to monitor that type of operation, the inspection required a specific skillset, something that the bureau does not possess.”
Reddock said there was need for a more “holistic approach, through the development of a National Policy on Quality which would give guidance on quality aspects.” He said it was a “generic approach, but it will offer guidance.” It is not a new concept, he said, because it already exists in other parts of the world, “but it has not gotten traction in Trinidad.”
Reddock suggested there may be need for annual inspections of LPG facilities or ongoing training of employees.
Injured
Noel Boucaud, 38
Elizabeth Diaz, 53
Roxanne Charles, 34
Lana Lewis Motley, 35
Camille Nicholas, 49
Sahida Nabbie, 54
John Soo Ping Chow, 49
Lessa Samuel, 34
Gregory Maicoo, 36
Lovan Rhamdine, 42
Shedine Elcock, 30
Samantha Lalla, 24
Eyewitness accounts
Several eyewitness accounts of what happened on February 5, 2015, point to a “cloud of gas filling the air.”
The GML Enterprise Desk obtained photos of the hose used for the delivery on that fateful day and it appears there was a rupture.
The official report from the Fire Service quotes the loader Gregory Maicoo confirming “there was a rupture in the delivery hose at the time he was going to hook up the hose to the tank, resulting in the leakage of LPG.”
Maicoo said the driver, Neville Rampersad, “went back to the vehicle to lock off the pump and he went in the opposite direction and hid behind a wall.” He said he saw an explosion and saw flames coming towards him.
Rampersad admitted to hearing a “loud explosion” while waiting to deliver the fuel. On investigating, he said he saw the area “filled with gas” and Maicoo was “bleeding from his face.” He said he ran to the back of the building to “extinguish some small flames” where he was accompanied by a stranger. After extinguishing the flames at the back, he said he went to the front of the building “where he observed broken glass windows, and he observed flames in the ceiling of the El Pecos storage room area.
Further investigations revealed the driver had parked the delivery vehicle behind a wall near the old Bagshot Hotel in Maraval. The hose delivering the gas was passed over the wall and there was no line of vision between the handler and the driver. Chief Fire Officer Kenny Gopaul told the GML Enterprise Desk the “line of vision is critical in the delivery of LPG.”
In her eyewitness statement, manager of the restaurant Gail Camacho said Rampersad, an employee of North Plant LPG, had been delivering gas to El Pecos, Maraval, for the past six years. She said he often parked his delivery truck on the empty lot of land known as “Bagshot land” when there was no parking on the compound. “If he does park on the Bagshot Land he would put the delivery hose over the wall,” she said.
It was also usual, she said, for “Neville to call out to me. When I hear him call out I usually prepare his cheque,” and go to the back to chat with him.
On the day in question, she said she was meeting with Soo Ping Chow in her office and heard “a louder hissing sound than usual for the gas tanks being refilled,” and “almost instantly I noticed a very strong smell of gas.”
She said she was immediately alerted that something was wrong and went to check. At the back of the building she saw “a large amount of white cloud coming into the building through the open space in the gate. The white cloud was low to the ground and the smell of gas was very strong.”
She called out to Rampersad but got no response. She said because of the amount and size of the cloud and the “overwhelming smell of gas” she thought “the hose must be on the floor and the gas was just flowing in.”
By the time she got to the front of the building there was a “loud explosion,” and she said she felt herself being “pushed to the ground.”
Fire Officer Ishmael Noel in his report said there was a rapid spread of flames from the rear passageway of El Pecos to where the gas mixture travelled.
The rapid moving flame travelled into the building on the ground floor “with the force of deflagrating gas” he said, causing “major damage on the ground floor and a resulting fire in the El Pecos Restaurant.”