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BOI still to be completed for Camp Stephenson explosion
Dead: Toohey Peneux
Dead: Shaquille DeHarte
One month after the death of three members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) during a massive pyrotechnics explosion at Camp Stephenson, Timehri, the Board of Inquiry (BOI) into the circumstances surrounding the explosion is yet to be completed.
On April, 31, around 09:00hrs at Camp Stephenson, a fiery explosion erupted, sending persons nearby scattering for cover from the thick, black smoke. Killed instantly were Lance Corporal Kevon Nicholson, 23; Lance Corporal Toohey Peneux, 28; and Private Shaquille DeHarte, 20.
Sergeant Quincy Threlfell, 43, and Lance Corporal Paul Peters, 29, were also injured.
The Guyana Defence Force had initially promised a board of inquiry, but almost two months have passed and yet no update on the progress or any other information has been released. Contacted yesterday GDF Public Relation Officer, Heppilena Ferguson said she could not provide an update.
Dead: Kevon Nicholson
Dead: S. Rose
“Yes,” Ferguson told this paper, “a Board of Inquiry was set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident…. the details of which I have no information.”This is the second such incident that has happened this year. In February, 31-year-old Seon Rose was severely injured in an explosion that happened suddenly while ranks of the GDF Artillery Unit were offloading imported fireworks to be used in the 50th Republic Anniversary Fireworks display. Rose, who received the full brunt of the explosion, was burnt over 90 percent of his body – he died one day after being hospitalized. The explosion also left eight other soldiers nursing burns and trauma injuries about their bodies. The BOI into that earlier explosion is also still to be completed
Both incidents are redolent of the Camp Groomes explosion that happened almost 20 years ago. The series of deadly explosions resulted in the loss of three lives at the Guyana Defence Force (GDF)’s largest ammunition dump, Camp Groomes, Linden on December 18, 2000.
On that deadly night the casualties were among a unit tasked with guarding the ammunition storage bond. That bond, due to reasons which have not been released to the public, exploded. It reportedly contained grenades, various rifles, guns, and a suspected chemical weapon which the government had said was destroyed at the time. To date, no public release was made on the BOI into the Camp Groomes explosion even though the GDF was taken to court to compensate the injured men who were dismissed from work because of the injuries they sustained from the explosion.
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