Nozzle ‘missing’ from IGL mishap

His revelation came yesterday in the Senate in response to Independent Senator Basharat Ali.

In a written question Ali had asked whether an investigation had been undertaken, who were the investigators, what were their findings and who if anyone was found to be culpable?

Montano said the probe should be completed by July, but investigators were awaiting the results of metallurgical testing on the fragments of the exploding gas cylinder, being done by the University of New Mexico, and Air Liquid of Paris, France. Ali asked if Air Liquid was a subsidiary of IGL, but Montano did not know. Newsday called IGL and found out they do have a subsidiary called Air Liquid, although the parent company, Neal and Massy, said it could only comment after it reads the Hansard Report of the debate.

Montano said the investigating team comprised "ISO I" ranked officers of his Ministry’s Factory Inspectorate — Jeffrey Millington and Marsha Ramlal, but could not say if the team had other members.

Montano said: "We were asked what the Ministry did. The Ministry put these two officers to investigate and that’s all the information I could give you."

Ali replied: "I didn’t ask for the Ministry, but ‘who were the members of the investigating team,’ and all I have in answer are two names who are ISOs. So you don’t know then, yeah."

Ali added that he had asked for a description of what had happened.

Montano explained.

Apparently a gas cylinder had inadvertently been filled with the wrong kind of gas and at too -high a pressure.

He said IGL processes CO2, oxygen, acetylene and nitrogen. "IGL maintains fairly accurate records of the bottles that come into the plants to be filled. After this explosion their records indicated that one bottle of gas was missing, it was simply not there." He said the records of the cylinders coming into the plant had indicated that the missing bottle was an acetylene bottle.

"Apparently an oxygen bottle when it is filled is filled at a compression rate of 2,200 pounds per square inch (psi). Acetylene is pumped at the rate of 300 psi."

As a supposed safety-measure, he said, an acetylene bottle had a different type of nozzle to an oxygen bottle to connect to a "manifold" for refilling. "So you cannot take an acetylene bottle down to the oxygen manifold — it simply won’t make a connection."

"There is some indication that the missing bottle is not an IGL bottle but in fact was imported from a company from Grenada."

He said the reason for the metallurgical testing was to determine that the bottle that exploded was in fact an acetylene bottle. "It may have been that the owners of the bottle may have had a fitting on it that would have ‘indicated’ to the operators at IGL that it was an oxygen bottle."

Mantano said that apparently this acetylene bottle had on it an oxygen fitting and was then inadvertently connected to the oxygen manifold.

"They have been unable to find the nozzle that was attached to the oxygen manifold. So we are unable to conclusively determine exactly what happened, at this point."

Montano said IGL has paid the funeral expenses and filed a claim for the family of the deceased under the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

Ali asked if Air Liquid is a partner of IGL and whether this relationship would compromise the independence of the investigation.

Montano in his reply said he did not have that information, but said even if it were so, he did not think that fact would prejudice the inquiry.

He said the right things seemed to be happening in the investigation.

Opposition Senator Wade Mark then asked Montano if he now saw the need for the Government to implement the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA).