THE Eccles Two Brothers Gas Station yesterday remained closed for business following a near disaster at the facility on Wednesday evening.A return to the area yesterday found the premises closed and no fuel pumps were operable.

As was the case Wednesday, efforts to secure comments from the proprietors have proven futile, since they were unavailable to speak with this publication.
Meanwhile, Fire Chief Marlon Gentle in a brief telephone discussion with this newspaper refuted claims that the truck which burst into flames was a fuel tanker.
Asked what might have been the contributing factor to the fire as discovered in the initial investigations, the Fire Chief said that the investigations are still in progress.
He however stated that they have been receiving several reports with respect to what may have been responsible for the blaze, according to persons who were on the premises at the time.
One of the reports received by this publication and which was also shared with the Fire Service by persons was that the driver of the truck that was being loaded with fuel was smoking a cigarette moments before the blaze at the service station.
Gentle confirmed that such a report was received by the GFS and that it is being investigated.
According to sources who spoke with the Guyana Chronicle, the truck driver was smoking while supervising the filling of several containers with fuel, when he discarded the cigarette by flipping it out of his hand through his fingers.
Sparks from the cigarette reportedly came into contact with the vapour that was emanating from the fuel being loaded and that caused the blaze.
The use of cigarettes, mobile phones and several other items are prohibited when entering gas stations.
On Wednesday, two trucks were damaged, one completely, after the one that was being loaded burst into flames.
The Fire Service and the police responded promptly to the information about the fire at the gas station.
Both organisations immediately activated their Standard Operating Procedures as they set out to deal with the fire, even as employees at the service station also activated their SOPs’ in treating a problem of that nature.
During the fire-fighting exercise, traffic on the East Bank of Demerara was almost brought to a stand-still even as police ranks fought tirelessly to ensure the continuous flow of traffic and keeping persons from preventing the firefighters in performing their duties.

By Leroy Smith