IT HAS taken death and injury to alert the public to the potential disasters involved in the distribution and sale of petroleum products. And the dangers lurk not only at the gas stations which service the motoring public but also at commercial establishments and private residences using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
It was only in July that the Minister of Mining and Energy, Mr. Anthony Hylton, speaking in the Sectoral Debate, told Parliament that a safety inspection service was to be established to monitor all aspects of the LPG sector.
The Minister's announcement came against the background of the explosion in May at the Juici Patties establishment in Lane Plaza, Liguanea, St. Andrew, resulting in injury to four employees. Two subsequent explosions at private residences killed a young law student and destroyed a house in St. Thomas.
In making the announcement Mr. Hylton said the new inspectorate would be similar to the one which manages the petroleum trade. That, presumably, is the Petroleum Safety Inspectorate Division (PSID) of the Ministry which has now produced the report of an audit showing disasters waiting to happen.
The scope of gross disregard for safety measures suggests that the older inspectorate has been sleeping on the job. The audit shows that 168 of 174 service stations inspected had irregularities. Pump attendants have not been trained to deal with emergencies and in some instances were unable to use fire extinguishers; and there are leaking pumps at three stations.
That may well be just half of the story since the report covers just eight parishes service stations in Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Mary. St. Catherine, St. Thomas, St. Ann, Clarendon and Portland.
The PSID has also audited ten LPG filling plants and disclosed a range of irregularities which make handling the product potentially dangerous.
It should not have taken the accidents which happened to prompt the audits commissioned by the Minister. As the name implies an inspectorate must do inspection as an on-going exercise. That is the essence of disaster preparedness.
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