Gas explosion injures three
In a wake of several catastrophic incidents, regulations have recently been enacted which ban on site filling of portable butane cylinders… but the law still allows gas trucks to fill large fixed commercial tanks. It was one such operation that shocked a crowded neighbourhood this morning near downtown Belize City.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
Two Belize City men are being treated for second and third degree burns in Merida after a gas explosion around 10:45 this morning at Excellent Diner, corner George and Orange Street, rattled the neighbourhood. They are Javier Soler, twenty-seven years old of Petti Coat Alley in Belize City and Victor Diaz, thirty-seven years of Ladyville.
Reports are that Soler, the driver of a Belize Choice Gas truck and his sideman Diaz, were in the process of filling a large commercial gas cylinder which was on the verandah of the second floor of the three storey building.
According to Andy Quan, who works at the bike shop nearby, the stove in the restaurant was still on when the cylinders was being filled.
Andy Quan
“I was working in the bike shop and then all of a sudden I just see some gas coming from the second floor. I saw my father trying to tell the gasman to shut down the tank and then in less that ten seconds, bam! It exploded in flames. I just feel the thing (gas tank) shake up. I tried to help out our workers inside and then I closed the door. I tried to out the fire, I went to the second floor and out the fire and then later the men just come.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Fire trucks?”
Andy Quan
” I heard fire trucks and ambulance coming, but I was outing it by myself on the second floor.
Ann-Marie Williams
“How many people were hurt?”
Andy Quan
“Basically, I think it’s three with major hurt: the two gasmen and a girl who work inside.”
Quan says he saw fire running along the gas line back into the kitchen, which caused the cook, twenty-year old Peng Quing Wang to suffer minor burns to the left forearm. She has since been treated and released from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Martha Habet of the KHMH told News 5 that Soler suffered second and third degree burns to more than forty percent of his body and third degree burns to both hands. He was transported to Merida via and air ambulance in a critical, but stable condition. Diaz, less seriously injured is on his way to Merida by road. Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
According to Fire Chief Henry Baizar, the fire may have started when the hose was disconnected from the tank, causing a rush of gas to escape and run along the line to the lit stove in the kitchen.
