A pyrotechnics explosion at the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Base Camp Stephenson, at Timehri, East Bank Demerara, killed three soldiers yesterday and left two others nursing injuries.
The dead have been identified as Lance Corporal Kevon Nicholson, 23, of Levi Dam, Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam; Lance Corporal Tooney Peneux, 28, of Orealla Village, Corentyne River, and Private Shaqueel DeHart, 20, of Paradise Village, West Coast Berbice.
The army said they were preparing the pyrotechnics for demolition.
A source told Stabroek News the fireworks were left over from the set that was procured for Guyana’s 50th Republic anniversary in February and the soldiers were tasked with destroying it yesterday. Fireworks from the same consignment had exploded during handling at the Coast Guard wharf just hours before the republic anniversary on February 22nd, resulting in the death of one soldier and injuries to seven others. The source said army officials were aware that the batch of fireworks was from a defective consignment and none of the ranks handling them yesterday appeared to have been wearing protective gear.
The two injured ranks were identified as Sergeant Quincy Threlfall, 43, and Lance Corporal Paul Peters, 29. Threlfall was receiving medical care at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) up to yesterday afternoon, while Peters was treated at Base Camp Stephenson, a statement from the Ministry of Presidency said.
Four of the ranks were air-dashed in a GDF helicopter from the explosion site to the army headquarters and then transported to the GPHC. At the hospital, Nicholson, Peneux and DeHart were pronounced dead on arrival.
Pictures seen by this newspaper showed that the ranks suffered grisly injuries, including severed limbs and gaping wounds about their bodies.
Both the Ministry of Presidency and the GDF said that a Board of Inquiry has been launched to probe the explosion.
The GDF, in a brief statement yesterday morning, said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding the explosion, which occurred around 9 am at its Arms Store complex at Timehri.
It said its preliminary investigations revealed that the soldiers were involved in the preparation of pyrotechnics for demolition when the explosion occurred.
Following the explosion, Fire Chief Marlon Gentle told Stabroek News, firefighters from the Timehri Fire Station responded and put out the blaze. He related that he could not reveal any other information since the army is involved.
With a second deadly explosion in just over two months, the army is already facing questions about the measures put in place to handle explosives and fireworks. It is not clear if the soldiers were wearing protective gear and what level of training they possessed in relation to the handling of explosives.
There has been no publication of the findings of the Board of Inquiry that investigated the February 22nd explosion and the GDF’s Public Relations Officer Heppilena Ferguson yesterday said she was unable to release any other information.
Timehri residents yesterday told Stabroek News that they heard loud explosions and felt a vibration. When they checked to see what had happened, they observed a thick cloud of smoke emanating from the army base and later heard the siren from the firetruck that was speeding there.
Protective gear
Rixon Peneux, the brother of Tooney Peneux, yesterday told Stabroek News that he received a phone call from the GDF’s Welfare Officer, who informed him of the tragedy. In the phone call, he said, the welfare officer informed him that his brother was injured while being involved in an exercise with explosives and that an investigation was ongoing.
He told this newspaper that he along with some others went to the base after receiving the news but when he got there was informed that all the injured persons had already been transported to Georgetown.
He related that when he arrived in Georgetown, he was asked to identify his brother and he did so.
“My brother suffered severe injuries, mostly to his head and hands. I was able to identify him still but he didn’t deserve a death like this. He just didn’t deserve this…,” the man stressed.
He further said that from all indications, neither his brother nor his colleagues had been wearing protective gear at the time they were executing their duties.
“They were not protected from what I saw and the pictures, you know they did not wear protective gear. They were injured so bad you just know they didn’t wear any gear. I think the army needs to answer and tell us why they didn’t wear any,” the distraught brother said, while questioning whether the men would have survived had they been wearing protective gear.
The deceased Peneux had visited his brother, who lives on the East Bank, and only returned to work on Tuesday morning at the request of his commanding officer.
“He was here and was supposed to send some money for our parents and he had planned to do that Tuesday but he got called away and asked me to do it. That was the last time we spoke,” the brother recalled.
Meanwhile, their father, Laddy Peneux, called on the GDF to make every effort to ensure that his son’s body is returned home to Orealla to be laid to rest.
He told Stabroek News that it was his son’s dream to be a part of the army. The deceased Peneux had been a member of the GDF since 2015.
According to the father, he last saw his son in December, when he went home for Christmas and they last spoke on Wednesday night when the soldier called to enquire if they had received the money he sent. “They didn’t explain what happened but they confirmed he died by an explosion and that they are doing some investigation on what cause the bomb to explodes,” the grieving father told this publication.
At the home of Nicholson, his mother Cheryl Nicholson was still coming to grips with the reality of her son’s death. For her, it represents the loss of a second child in four years. (Her daughter, Lonette Nicholson-Prince, a hairdresser, was stabbed 15 times at the hands of her estranged husband.)
While she did not speak about the tragic news she had received earlier, she reminisced about last weekend, when her son was home.
“My son came home last Wednesday afternoon and spent the weekend. He went with me shopping and make sure I get everything… and he left Tuesday morning,” she related.
She said that despite her son being away working, he would always check on her and ask whether she had everything she needed in the home.
“He was always so caring. And every time you see him, he is smiling—from the time he reached the gate he smiling. We does have to ask him why you smiling up so… now he is gone,” she added.
The family was informed that he died while on duty.
DeHart’s mother, Melissa Hutson, told this publication that she had only spoken to her son yesterday morning. They spoke every day. “Thinking about it now, I don’t know who I will call. He was my eldest and to hear he dead, it’s hard, real hard,” she said as she explained that like the other families, she received a call and later a visit from army officers, who informed her of her son’s death and that an investigation was underway.
She last saw her son on Monday and he, like his colleagues, returned to work on Tuesday.
The family members said army officials have indicated that they will be assisting the families with funeral expenses.
Condolences
Yesterday, both the caretaker president David Granger and opposition PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo extended condolences to the families and the GDF.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Presidency said Granger was saddened by the death of the three army ranks and expressed his sympathy to the relatives and friends of the three soldiers and wished the injured ranks a speedy recovery.
Meanwhile, Jagdeo, at a press conference, also called on the GDF Chief of Staff Patrick West to do all that is necessary to ensure that the army gets to the bottom of the explosion.
He expressed concern that greater care appeared not to have been taken to demolish the pyrotechnics given their unstable nature. “…Greater precaution should have been taken and we knew that the ordnance is unstable… there was knowledge that this ordnance unstable,” Jagdeo said, while referring to the previous explosion.
An army source said that the Engineers Battalion should not have been the lead unit in the disarming exercise as this type of ordnance falls directly under the Support Services Battalion.
Furthermore, the GDF has senior demolition experts but two Lance Corporals and a Private soldier were sent to disarm unstable explosives.
The disarming exercise was also taking place when there was a 100% arm store check being conducted in the building next to it.
