THREE men are now dead after a fuel transport boat, “the Canada Club,” which was docked at a wharf at Friendship, East Bank Demerara (EBD), exploded on Saturday afternoon while they were pumping fuel. Dead are, 60-year-old Seepersaud Persaud, a boat captain of Beehive Essequibo Coast; Damion Dias, 29, a sailor of Sarah Johanna EBD and Mark Mangal.
According to a police report, the owner of the vessel, Sewsankar (only name give), said no maintenance works were being conducted on the vessel at the time of the explosion.
The police said that the vessel delivered a shipment of motor gasoline (mogas) diesel and gasoline fuel to Guyoil at Adventure on the Essequibo Coast, Region Two (Pomeroon- Supenaam) on Friday last. After making the delivery, the boat returned to the wharf at Friendship on Saturday, around 10:30hrs.
Initial investigations indicated that the explosion came from the vessel’s engine room and it was subsequently discovered that a hose was connected to the boat’s fuel pump, which was observed to be partially burnt out. The remains of a yellow plastic bottle were found near the hose.

Further checks revealed that there are control valves in the vicinity of the fuel tank and the only valve which was found to be open was the valve for the gasoline tank.
Sewsankar told the police that all the valves should have been closed and the hose should only be connected to the fuel pump when discharging fuel.
Following Sewsankar’s statement, checks were made in the boat captain’s motorcar (# PTT 2965), which revealed five six-gallon bottles and one five-gallon bottle with suspected gasoline in the trunk. The police believe that the men appeared to

have been pumping gasoline from the sediment or reserve of the fuel tank.
Samples were taken of the suspected fuel and the bottles were lodged at the Grove Police Station pending further investigations.
The men were escorted to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where they were pronounced dead and were subsequently escorted to the Lyken Funeral Parlour where they are awaiting post-mortems.

Meanwhile, Sheila Dias, the mother of Damion Dias, told this newspaper that she spoke with him just hours before his death and asked him to return home to visit his family in White Water Village, Mabaruma, Region One, since they have not seen him for a year and seven months.
The distraught mother said her son left the region to pursue a job opportunity in Region Four and has been working ever since.
Dias recalled when she got the devastating news of her son’s passing, saying:-
“I get the call around six something; one of my nieces called and asked if I hear anything, and I seh no and they seh you didn’t hear Damian dead?
“But I get shocked so I cut off the call. I didn’t want to believe it, but then later on he brother called and said the boy dead, he get burn up in a boat.”
He leaves to mourn his parents and six siblings.