Leslie Adams, a survivor of Saturday morning’s trawler explosion off the Waini coast recalled awaking to fire and seeing his still missing captain engulfed in flames.
Search efforts for Cane Grove, Mahaica fisherman Delbert Williams came up empty yesterday as his relatives prayed and hoped that the experienced fisherman will return home alive.
Those injured following the explosion which substantially destroyed the Captain Lloyd 97 fishing vessel owned by Pritipaul Singh Investments are Orlon Munroe,19 and Leslie Adams,22, both of Virginia Village, Cane Grove, Mahaica, George Fitzpatrick, 40 of West Ruimveldt and Elvis Todd, who escaped with minor injuries. They were rescued by another vessel dozens of miles off the north west coast following the explosion and were later transferred to another vessel owned by the company they work for before arriving in Georgetown early yesterday morning.
Monroe, who sustained third degree burns over a large portion of his body, and Fitzpatrick, who sustained second degree burns are both under watch by staff of the Burn Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) while Adams sustained minor burns to the face, right hand and parts of his left shoulder. He is a patient in the Male Surgical Ward of the hospital. Monroe’s condition is said to be serious.
This newspaper understands that rescue teams went out to scour the seas yesterday in search of the 47-year-old Williams but up to press time, he could not be located.
Numbers provided for the Pritipaul Singh company went unanswered when attempts were made by this newspaper yesterday to obtain a comment.
Adams, on his first voyage to sea, told Stabroek News from his hospital bed that he was asleep in the hull of the vessel around 9 am on Saturday when he was awakened by an intense heat. The young man said “when I open me eyes, all I see is fire”, and according to him he immediately ran out to the deck of the vessel. He said during this time he could hear the captain shouting for the crew members to run to safety.
Adams said that he grabbed a knife and cut a rope which released a lifeboat into the water during which time he observed Munroe and Todd swimming in the sea. As he was about to plunge into the lifeboat, the man said he faced the horrifying image of the captain staggering on the deck of the vessel on fire. He said he and Munroe, whose body he noted was “heated” held onto the lifeboat and shortly after, some 20 minutes after he awoke to the fire, a nearby Venezuelan fishing vessel which they had signalled, came to their rescue.
He said another crew member, whose name he could not recall yesterday, had “pushed a box near the boat” into which Williams fell but he could not recall what transpired after, since he was experiencing intense pain. He noted, however, that a short while after, the Venezuelan vessel returned and scoured the area, some 15 miles away from the scene but the Captain could not be located.
Adams said that Munroe and Todd are his close friends and the trio along with the missing boat captain, live a stone’s throw away from each other at Cane Grove in the Mahaica area. He said that from all appearances the fire which engulfed the entire vessel, started in the engine room at the bottom of the vessel, beneath the area where he was sleeping. Officials from the company had moments earlier paid the young man a visit before he recounted the ordeal to Stabroek News.
Meanwhile, outside the Burn Care Unit, Fitzpatrick’s wife, Nicola Fitzpatrick was peeved that the company had not expressed remorse to her since the incident occurred and according to her, when she was first notified of the incident by company officials on Saturday, “it sound as if it was just a minor thing”.
She said it was only when she and other relatives visited the GPH around 6 am yesterday that she realized the extent of the men’s injuries. She said her husband, who had been working at sea for more than two decades, worked several stints with the company, this trip being the second since he “went back with them recently”. She said the crew was expected to be at sea for some six weeks on the ill-fated voyage.
Other relatives stated that the vessel in question had been “a trouble vessel”, since according to them, their injured relative related that after the crew departed the McDoom, East Bank Demerara base of the company last Thursday, they were forced to return after the vessel broke down. They said that the injured Fitzpatrick related that he and the captain along with Munroe were “fixing a belt” in the engine room when there was a loud explosion on Saturday morning.
Munroe’s mother related that her son was talking with relatives, even though his entire body appeared to be in pain. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the GPH initially but was transferred to the Burn Care Unit yesterday afternoon. The man’s mother said she was hopeful that he would be able to recover from his injuries, noting that they were severe.
Up at William’s home at Mahaica, relatives of the father of four wore worried looks on their faces when this newspaper visited yesterday. His wife Holda Williams was praying and hoping for the best as she offered brief comments on the situation since the company, with which her husband worked for more than 20 years, advised the family not to speak to the media. Other relatives offered comforting words to the man’s immediate family members including his teenage daughter who could not hold back tears.
Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud stated on Saturday evening that his staff was monitoring the situation closely and he expressed concern about the crew members. The Agriculture Minister also ordered a full investigation into the incident.
