By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterTHERE ARE a couple of firsts that one never forgets. The wallop of that first real kiss and the thrill of seeing the pay cheque from one's first job. However, there are some firsts that one would rather not remember, for instance, the first time you were in a really bad accident.
The last example is definitely the case for 55-year-old vendor Anthony 'Prince' Baker, who lost his left hand and left leg during the Premier Plaza Christmas Eve explosion of 1985, 18 years ago today.
The incident killed three people and injured 22, several of whom were left with physical disabilities.
The explosion occurred at about 6:30 p.m., shattering the good-natured uproar and the charged atmosphere associated with the festive season and leaving in its wake extensive damage to buildings and cars.
Newspaper accounts say that a cylinder, which was used to inflate gas balloons, exploded in the crowd of shoppers milling around Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew. Eyewitness reports claim that instead of the helium normally used to fill balloons, the gas used was a synthesis of the gases produced by the chemical reaction of hydrochloric acid and zinc.
When the cylinder finally blew, it was heard within a three-mile radius. Other published eyewitness reports suggest that the cylinder had been running hot for some time and water had been poured on it to cool it down.
Mr. Baker recalls the events with clarity.
"Beanie was the one who was filling the balloons from the cylinder. Him did catch some water in beer bottles, and that's what him use fi cool down the cylinder when it ah get hot," he told The Gleaner.
"The water did begin to run down towards my stall and my goods, so mi go over to him and ask him to hold the cylinder, and move to the other side of the road. He said no, so I was on my way back to move my goods when I turned back to look, and same time, boooom!" he said, gesticulating with the stump of his left hand.
EVERYTHING SHATTERED
"The explosion threw me a few yards, and mi land flat pon mi bottom hard. I was still conscious, maybe because I had been smoking a lot of weed, but I couldn't hear nothing, the place get dark, and the air full of white stuff. The glass in the Crazy Jim building right at the corner blow out, all the stalls flatten out, people ah run and ah bawl judgement... it was terrible."
He added blood-curdling details about 'a nurse who had just stepped off a bus, only to find a few seconds later, that her leg had been slashed off, and of a vendor's head (Beanie) which was found on top of a nearby building and his body had been split in two by the explosion.
"At least five people I know lost their limbs in the explosion, mi know three who dead, Beanie, Stocious and Trench Town's girl... it was judgement that day, just judgement... they had even pronounced me dead but here I am," Mr. Baker, a father of four, said.
On the night of the Christmas Eve disaster, four amputations were performed.
The men who died that day were Allan Thomas, 65, a vendor of Lot 681 Garveymeade, St. Catherine; Delroy Stewart, 18, of Salkey Way, Duhaney Park and an unidentified male.
Mr. Baker, who is left-handed, was forced to give up his trade because he 'was afraid of using his one good hand which he still had to cut the leather because of the danger involved'.
COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE
"The tragedy could have been worse, it was early when it happened, there could have been kids around because you know how they love balloons... I am not angry about the experience, I have life and that is the greatest thing, I even still enjoy Christmas," he said, but added that he "had received no sort of assistance for me and my four kids since the incident."
Victor Sale, the owner of a drapery store in Premier Plaza, also recalls the incident.
"It could have been worse. I remember they were close to my store doing the balloon thing and I smelled the gas coming from a cylinder, they had used soap to seal the top of. I asked them to leave and they headed towards the main road on a pushcart," said Mr. Sale.
"Ten minutes later, I heard a big explosion. It was like an earthquake. It shook everything off the shelves... luckily I asked them to move because they could have caused the death of more people on the busy plaza."
Elaine Scott, 67, who is employed to Captain Hook's Fish Tackle World, was working in the same plaza in 1985 at the time of the accident.
"I can't even recall what I was doing. All I remember was that people were running up and down on the plaza... but I wasn't scared or anything, I didn't even go to see the accident scene out by the front of the plaza, my mother taught me never to run to such things," she said.
