Fire Official Says Use of Wrong Tool Caused Ship Yard Explosion

On Monday evening, an oil tanker explosion occurred at a lumber yard in Camp Eight in the Mennonite community of Shipyard.  The vehicle belonging to M. Leiva and Sons Trucking Company was offloading crude oil to a stationary tank at Crown’s Lumber Yard and during the transfer, oil escaped from the feeder hose to the pump which caught fire. Today, Station Supervisor, Kenneth Mortis of the National Fire Service, explained what fire officials found in that investigation. Mortis could not say whether any criminal charges will be laid against anyone for the incident.

Kenneth Mortis

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, Belize National Fire Service

“The driver of the bobtail truck over in Shipyard Monday, what happened is that they were siphoning fuel, trying to discharge at least 2.5 thousand gallons from the container, when unfortunately the equipment they were using malfunctioned, caught a fire and then erupted into an explosion. Fortunately, even though Mr Crown sustained minor burn damages to his lower feet and hands, fortunately, he was able to be treated by the Northern Regional medical team and this discharged the very same day. The observation from this – or the key take-away from this incident was that these people weren’t using the appropriate tool for the job. They were pumping fuel with a regular water pump versus a fuel pump, so to speak, and when the equipment failed, that was when we had the explosion resulting in the afterclap. How we look at it from a criminal standpoint, if I may use that word, that is something that will probably be determined by the police department. I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth, but there’s – that’s something that also the Department of Environment can comment on. Whether it was just a pass through point, if it’s a natural storage facility, that’s something that they will have to address and deal with it at some point in time.”