Two injured in butane gas explosion

Residents of Jasmine Street in Belize City got a scare on Sunday afternoon when a butane gas tank exploded while being filled. According to the National Fire Service, a truck belonging to Belize Western Energy Limited was on a routine butane gas delivery at the home of Deborah Longsworth Young when the incident happened. In a written report to the fire department, Young said that while the tank was being refilled, she noticed that the hundred pound cylinder was leaking and alerted the truck driver Caesar Martinez and his sideman Colin Gillett. A company press release late this evening said that the B.W.E.L. employees stopped pumping gas and radioed for a pickup truck to come take away the leaking tank. It was while waiting for the second vehicle to arrive that the tank blew up, slightly injuring the two men, damaging the roof of the house and knocking out a window. Gillett and Martinez were treated and released from the K.H.M.H. Young was not injured in the blast. The B.W.E.L. press release pointed out that they believe the tank had previously been repaired and that the company does not repair cylinders by welding but instead replaces all tanks it considers faulty.