El Pecos's gas supplier considers appeal

GAS supplier North Plant LPG Co-operative Society Ltd, the supplier of liquid gas to the El Pecos restaurant in Maraval in 2015, is expected to appeal a judge’s ruling in which she found it was liable for the damage done in an explosion at the restaurant.

Attorneys for the gas supplier are reviewing the judge’s ruling and are expected to file an appeal.

Contacted by telephone to find out how North Plant’s operations had changed since the incident, the supplier’s managing director Kerry Maharaj said he was swamped and could not speak at the moment.

He asked that he be contacted on Wednesday.

Also on Tuesday, attorney Rudyard Davidson, who represents one of the El Pecos blast victims, Nicole Gillian Blake, who sued the restaurant and North Plant for a little over $.2 million, said he will be studying the full text of Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams’ ruling to ascertain the full implications of it as it relates to his client.

Blake’s lawsuit is also before Justice Quinlan-Williams after having been transferred from the dockets of Justice Frank Seepersad and Justice Mira Dean-Armorer.

Davidson said it would not be prudent to speak on either the judge’s ruling or his client’s case.

In her claim for compensation, Blake, an insurance agent, said she was collecting lunch when the explosion happened and she suffered calf, palm and upper arm/elbow injuries.

Her lawsuit says while she was collecting food, she smelt a strong odour of gas and promptly dropped her food and ran for the exit.

Her lawsuit added that immediately after she got outside, “a thunderous explosion ripped through” the building, and the doors and glass windows were blown out and the entire eatery engulfed in flames.

Blake was thrown six feet to the ground. She was left with glass fragments embedded in her calf, as well as cuts to her palm, elbow and forehead, for which she had to have plastic surgery.

She has claimed loss of income as well as future medical expenses.

Twelve people were injured in the blast on February 5, 2015. One of them, John Soo Ping Chow, died four months later at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

In her ruling, Quinlan-Williams said, based on the evidence, she was satisfied that the actions of the driver of the LPG truck caused the explosion. She said had it not been for the breach in safety procedures by North Plant’s employee, the explosion would not have taken place.

She ordered North Plant to pay nominal damages of $600,000 to Continental Corporation, the owners of the property which housed the El Pecos restaurant and other businesses.