June 3 disaster committee report lacks substance - Engineer

A 70-year Mechanical Engineer, Kofi Antwi has challenged the findings of the committee set to investigate the cause of the June 3 flood and fire disaster at the GOIL filing station in Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.

In his view, the committee’s report is wrong and lacks substance.

Speaking on Adom FM’s Morning Show, ‘Dwaso Nsem’ Wednesday, the Mechanical Engineer said the committee's report lacks substance as he doubts the ability of a fire from a lit cigarette to cause an explosion.

A five member committee under the chairmanship of Justice Douse which was inaugurated to investigate the disaster which killed more than a hundred and fifty persons attributed the cause of the disaster to a lit cigarette dropped unto the surface of the flood waters which contained leaked fuel from the filling station.

“The dropping of the lit cigarette stub by Seth Kwesi Ofosu onto the floating fuel was the ultimate or immediate cause of the fire,” the report stated.

The committee has subsequently handed Mr. Ofosu over to Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to determine whether or not he intentionally caused arson.

But Kofi Antwi has challenged this claim stating that never in his career as a Mechanical Engineer has he witnessed a lit cigarette causing fire.

“When you lit a fire without a flame and drop it down on petrol, it can never explode. I am 70 years old and I know what will happen when you drop a cigarette in a bucket full of petrol,” he stressed.

He said the committee has not been truthful to Ghanaians therefore government should charge them for wasting resources and lying to the country.

Meanwhile, a chemist at Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Mr. Emmanuel Ofoh, speaking on the same show expressed his disagreement with Kofi Antwi stating that petrol density is more than water therefore it can ignite fire when it comes into contact with lit cigarette.

“If there is petrol on the surface of water or suspended, definitely it will spark fire when it comes into contact with a lit cigarette," he said.

Mr. Ofoh however said he cannot confirm whether cigarette was the cause of the explosion or not because he was not at the scene.

 Source: Ghana/Adomonline.com/Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy/dorcas.kennedy@adomonline.com/Twitter: @KendraAbedu