A small fire broke out yesterday afternoon at the Eccles-based Demerara Oxygen Company (DOCOL), temporarily halting all activities.
No one was injured during the incident at the company’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant.
The incident came just over a month after an explosion on the same premises caused three workers to be hospitalized with burns and raised concerns about the safety procedures at the plant.
Reports are that sometime before 2pm yesterday, a generator near the company’s acetylene plant exploded, causing a small fire. The generator, Stabroek News understands, was not in operation at the time of the incident.
A resident of the nearby area said she did not hear an explosion but saw smoke coming from the back of the compound. She said that when smoke was observed, children who were at a Christmas party being hosted on the premises were quickly evacuated from the compound to the Eccles Primary School, which is located opposite.
Staff also evacuated the compound and fire-fighters arrived shortly after. “It wasn’t anything major,” the resident added. According to her, the staff returned to the building a short while after.
Meanwhile, Stabroek News understands that a management meeting was called after the incident. Efforts to get a comment from management about the incident were unsuccessful.
On October 29, three men—Heera Persaud, Rabindranauth Ramdhani and Mirvel Richards—were injured while refilling gas at the plant.
The men said that as they were refilling the gas, something created a spark, which ignited the gas. The Ministry of Labour subsequently launched an investigation into the incident while DOCOL offered support to the injured employees and committed to paying all medical expenses for them.
The $80M LPG filling plant was opened in November 2008. Labour Minister Nadir had congratulated DOCOL on the initiative and applauded them for their efforts to ensure the safety of their workers.
