Two suffer burns in tug boat fire

Two workers from Trinidad Contractors Ltd were in  critical condition at hospital yesterday afternoon after they were severely burned in an explosion at the Claxton Bay port yesterday. Reports are that 40-year-old Videsh Mohess, of St Croix Road, Princes Town, suffered 90 per cent burns, while his colleague John Lambert, 50, had 50 per cent burns. Up to late yesterday, both men were warded at the Augustus Long Hospital at Petrotrin, Pointe-a-Pierre. A third man was warded in a stable condition with minor burns.

Police said  around 1.15 pm, the men were doing maintenance work at the port at World Wide Equipment Caribbean Ltd (WWECL) off the Southern Main Road, St Margaret’s Village when the fire broke out. A worker who witnessed the accident from another vessel said he heard an explosion and saw thick black smoke coming from the boat, which was docked at the port.

“I saw two guys running out from the stern of the boat,” he said. “As I looked to the front, one guy came out from the wheelhouse, completely on fire. He was running back and forth, and another guy came out with an extinguisher and extinguished him.” When the T&T Guardian visited the scene at 3.30 pm, ambulances had already taken the men to hospital and firefighters were still trying to get the fire under control. 

When contacted yesterday, an attendant at Trinidad Contractors Ltd provided a number for another office, but calls to that office were unanswered.