The two men who were injured in the Mahdia fire on Wednesday morning are now patients at the Burn Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital and are said to be “recovering” by relatives.

Royston Harry, 20, of Supply, East Bank Demerara and Gopaul Basmattie, 24, of 2310 Tuschen Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo,  sustained first degree burns to their bodies when they were discharging gasoline from a drum near a kitchen when the hose they were using burst.

According to Region Eight Chairman Senor Bell, the incident occurred in central Mahdia around 10 am on Wednesday when a fuel tanker was unloading fuel behind Triple R Enterprise grocery. Harry was said to be the one handling the hose.

Reports, according to Bell, are that the hose had a leak somewhere in the line which sprayed the flammable substance in the direction of a nearby kitchen. Bell said that the leak was not noticed and he described it as “a needle size” leak.

In the kitchen meanwhile a lit gas stove sparked a fire which did much damage to the roof of the kitchen and leapt to Harry who was handling the hose. He sustained burns to most of his body except his face, his relatives said yesterday.

Basmattie, the driver of the truck, sustained burns to his arms, legs, face and about his body. According to his relatives he was standing close to Harry when the flames leapt over. But he was commended by Bell for his “quick thinking”.

According to Bell, when Harry got burnt he dropped the hose and Basmattie who was ablaze jumped into the tanker and drove it away from the fire. The fire was put out by the use of extinguishers and water.

Two months ago fire ravaged the business area of Mahdia. Bell yesterday noted that he is concerned over the safety of the community. Following the fire, there were discussions between the home affairs ministry and the miners association on what can be done to prevent a similar disaster.

He said that coming out of the discussion was a recommendation that all businesses have fire extinguishers. He said also that $10M was raised but the money has not been used as yet. There is supposed to be another meeting between the two parties on the way forward.

A major fire was prevented on Wednesday, Bell stated, because persons followed through with the extinguisher and the actions of Basmattie  “saved a whole community”.