Caretaker critical after butane gas explosion

In other dramatic news, an explosion on St. George’s Caye has left a caretaker in critical condition. Forty-eight year old Alburn Stevens is hospitalised with second degree burns to eighty percent of his body following an incident around seven on Sunday night. According to Therese Plunkett, it appears that a leaking gas tank caused the explosion that almost cost her brother his life.

Therese Plunkett, Sister of Burn Victim
“All weh he seh to me dah di gas tank and he noh know …”

Marion Ali
“Gas tank weh pah?”

Therese Plunkett
“Inside ah ih house. He tell me from fi he mouth dat dehn mi di clean di yard and dehn tek wah lee break and gone inside gone smoke wah cigarette and come back out but ih seh ih never smell no gas because all day di day ih had wah father’s day bar-b-que out ah di island. Ih seh but he couldn’t smell di gas because due to weh ih bar-b-que all day and ih seh all weh ih di smell da lone bar-b-que, bar-b-que. That’s why ih never smell di gas and pan dat ih gone inside fi tek wah shower and dah right deh incident happened. We di try see if we could get some blood donor fi donate some blood for ah because ih da O positive so if a could get somebody fi reach out to me and help mi, dehn could just go, give di blood dah di blood bank by the name of Alburn Stevens.”

Stevens suffered burns to his face, chest, stomach, back, abdomen and feet. Another man was also injured in the explosion but not as severely as Burns. Plunkett is also asking for financial support in order to take her brother abroad for advance treatment. If you would like to help the burn victim, please call Plunkett at 625-6045. You can also visit the family’s home at 4082 Sibun Street in Belize City.