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Following two massive fires in the northern mennonite communities this week, Station Supervisor Kenneth Mortis finally briefed the media today.
The first incident occurred on Monday in Shipyard, Orange Walk on Monday - and caused major loss of property, and the other happened on Tuesday night in Nueland, Corozal - and it claimed the life of two small children.
Both involved flammable liquids which suddenly ignited, leading to explosions. Mortis emphasized the adverse outcomes that result if attention isn't paid when handling dangerous liquids.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor
"Negligence, in a nutshell, it's an unfortunate situation. We had injuries sustained to the driver fortunately it was minor burn injuries to his feet but, um, the practice in itself was one of total negligence whereby the wrong type of pump was being used to channel, the crude oil from point A to point B, because of that the pumping mechanism failed. Miserably, an explosion occurred, um, I believe based on what our investigators reported had they been using the proper pump, they were using an actual water pump, they were using, they weren't using a fuel pump to siphon the crude oil, um, I don't know how they managed to pull that off but, um, I am hoping that in all negative we learn something from it we walk away from something positive from it, um, it's best to do your job the right way versus trying to short change it. You never know when something is going to happen that shouldn't happen, um, instead of losing what should have been or instead of siphoning 2,500 gallons of crude oil from a 9000 tanker, the entire capacity was a loss for that community."
The Police Department is responsible for enforcing the dangerous goods act. When we asked the Commissioner of Police yesterday for an update he told the media that he is waiting for a report from the fire department, before they make a final assessment on the matter. We also reached out to the Department of Environment who redirected us back to the Police for information on the handling of flammable liquids.
