Latest update December 25th, 2024 1:10 AM
Dec 06, 2010 News
Trawler explosion…
“It seems like nothing is going to come out of it…..because it’s taking so long” said Cheryl Munroe, the mother of burn victim 19-year-old Orlon Munroe.
Orlon Munroe, a former employee of Prittipaul Singh investments succumbed to severe burns he received after the vessel ‘Captain Lloyd’, which was registered to the company exploded in the North West District area on June 19, last.
The distraught mother yesterday told Kaieteur News that the entire incident is really taking a toll on the family.
“We are becoming frustrated. No one is telling us anything,” she stressed.
She explained that relatives had gone to Minister Robeson Benn over the incident, but his Secretary took the message and promised to forward it to the Minister.
According to the mother, apparently the message was not forwarded, since she is still to get a formal response from the Minister or officials of his Ministry.
The mother said that losing a child is never easy, especially the way she lost her son. She said that the company is expected to meet with relatives sometime this week to give them an update.
Kaieteur News was told that the Maritime Administration Department had forwarded the report back to the Ministries of Agriculture and Public Works weeks ago.
Sources at the Maritime Department had stated that several recommendations have been suggested to the company.
One being that the company, Prittipaul Singh Investments, should develop a quality management system which tells each person employed there what he or she is required to do.
Moreso, the report has suggested that they (Prittipaul Investments) should develop more quality standards.
The report also sought to make the recommendation that emergency drills should be carried out more often.
Several calls yesterday to Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud went unanswered.
Crewmember Orlon Munroe 19, one of the three persons who were hospitalised after the trawler mishap succumbed three months after the explosion.
The teen, up until his death, was a patient in the Burns Care Unit of the Georgetown Hospital. Munroe received burns to over 90 percent of his body.
Also injured in the freak accident were Keith Adams, 20, of Cane Grove, Mahaica and George Fitzpatrick of West Ruimveldt.
The body of the Captain, Delbert Williams was never recovered.
Munroe had told this newspaper that they (crew members) had attempted to start the engine but a wire started to spark and the next thing they saw was fire “all over”.
“I feel fire all over me body and me and the Captain run out of the engine room. I jump overboard.”
George Fitzpatrick had also told this publication that he was sleeping when he was awakened by the heat. About 25 per cent of his body was burnt.
He said that he was able to put the badly injured Captain in a tub used to store fish while he and Todd managed to grab on to the cover of the same tub.
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