(Trinidad Express) Christopher Boodram lived because he was the last man to be pulled into the darkness of the undersea pipeline.
And also because rescuers, disregarding orders from “officials” to stay away from the site, went down to get him.
What Boodram endured, and what he heard before he made it out three hours later, his family now fears for his sanity.
Boodram spent those hours dragging himself along inside the crude oil-coated 36-inch wide pipeline, pushed along by one of the men.
That man did not make it.
From his hospital bed, Boodram told relatives that as they tried to stay alive in the toxic air pockets at the top of the flooded pipeline, he called on the others to pray to God, and that Jesus would be their saviour.
The last thing he heard before he got out were their screams.
Boodram, 36, is a father of three living at Isaac Street, Pointe-a-Pierre. He has been a diver for more than ten years.
His brother, Larry, told the Express last evening: “Christopher is a stable condition now. He had no broken bones or fractures. Our concern is how long he spent down there, and the toxic air he breathed in, and how it may affect his lungs, years from now.”
Of greatest concern, Larry Boodram said, was his brother’s mental health.
“He communicated with the other divers under there in the darkness. He knows one was right behind him. He has been asking us, if they came out. We have been limiting that information, because every time he thinks about it, he is breaking down.”
A Delta P event
From what Boodram has shared with family, sometime between 2.30 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Friday he was inside the a “dry habitat”, about 25 feet underwater at Berth 6, off Paria’s Trading Company Ltd’s Pointe-a-Pierre facility, completing the repair job on a flange of the pipeline, when it happened.
There was a sudden rush of water into the area they were operating, sucking them into the pipeline along with their scuba tanks and the other gear.
What happened is called a Delta P event, where water from one area rushes in to fill another. The pressure difference draws divers in and makes escape almost impossible.
Boodram was the last to be sucked in.
How far he went into the pipeline with the other men, he does not know.
He told his brother that the men, some of whom were seriously injured by the force of the suction, were alive in the darkness of the pipeline, and that they breathed from air pockets and shared air from the oxygen tanks to stay alive, while banging on the inside of the pipe to attract attention.
According to his brother: “Christopher asked the people with him to pray to Jesus, that we will come out, that everybody we will get out of it, and those men were praying out loud.”
The man who helped him get back was the dive team leader Fyzal Kurban, 57, who is also his relative. Kurban is still missing.
The Express was told that Kurban shared his oxygen with Boodram and kept pushing him along the pipeline towards the hole into which they were sucked.
“When Christopher came out (into the habitat), there were nobody behind him, but he knew someone was close. He was hearing the screaming and the gasping,” the brother said.
Meanwhile, on the surface, when teammates realised that the men were in trouble, a distress call went out.
Oilfield service boats in the vicinity began converging on Berth 6.
The Express was told that there were divers with the equipment to do a rescue, but they were prevented from going into the water by safety officers on site.
Among those who came to the location was Kurban’s son, Nicholas, who contacted Ronald Ramoutar, the brother-in-law of Kurban.
Trapped inside the pipeline
Ramoutar, a certified diver, was the first to enter the water off Pointe-a-Pierre in search of the men on Friday.
Ramoutar said he received a distress call from his nephew Nicholas Kurban that his father appeared to be trapped inside a pipeline along with four others.
“I work with him as a diver with a company in Port of Spain and I was on my way home when he called on Friday. I arrived at Pointe-a-Pierre at 5.30 p.m. and found my nephew there. I prepared myself and along with another person, Cory, we were about to go into the water when officials from Paria came and stopped us. They said we were not to enter the water. I looked at my nephew and Cory and disregarded that order. I dived into the water in search of them,” he said.
Ramoutar said he spotted a man covered in a thick oil slick attempting to get to the surface. Boodram had already dragged himself out of the pipeline and was struggling to get to out.
“The oil was so thick he could not see anything. We managed to get him to the habitat and gave him a tank. He shouted that Fyzal was right behind him and we should go back for him. We went back in but we did not see anyone else. We found Fyzal’s tank and it was empty,” he said.
In a telephone interview with the Express, Ramoutar said they returned to the surface with Boodram, who appeared to be shaken by the ordeal. He had been underwater since 2.30 p.m. that day, knocking the pipeline and calling for help.
“Christopher said we have to go back for Fyzal and we were gearing up to dive again when Paria officials came again and stopped us. This time they instructed the T&T Coast Guard to block us from entering. The officers were armed and we had to follow instructions but they could have saved those men right then,” he said.
Boodram told the men that the others suffered injuries, possibly broken limbs, when they were sucked in.
“He said he was the last to go in and he did not have a lot of injuries but he knew the others were badly hurt. But they were alive when he was there. They were screaming for help and we were told that people outside were hearing them. But nobody went in,” he said.
