Gardnesville Township – At least 22 people have been hospitalized at a clinic located along the Somalia Drive after pollution suspected to be a chlorine gas poison occurred in NTA Community, according to an expert of the Ministry of Health.
Hundreds of residents in the area are still apprehensive following the explosion, and the representative of the district where the incident occurred has termed the situation as a “sad day” for his people.
The explosion and subsequent pollution occurred when a local iron scrap dealer reportedly purchased a tank from the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation with the intent of dismantling it into pieces of scrap for export.
Theophilous Adam, owner of the scrap facility, had purchased the tank couple of days before the incident, but while he was preparing to scrap it, it then exploded at about 1:30 am Wednesday Morning, community members told FPA.
Residents woke up to the explosion and some of them said they later saw smoke spewing from the tank, spreading across the community. It caused what they suspected to have been a chemical pollution of the air.
Some residents said they then urgently sought the intervention of the authorities including Ministry of Health and the Liberia National Police but it several hours before intervention.
Hours later, the pollution had spread across the community leaving dozens of residents struggling gasp for clean air. By dawn, several residents were been treated in the ambulance while on their way to the clinics for further treatment.
Six people are on critical condition but some have been discharged and still in the hospital, health authority says.
Speaking to FrontPage Africa, hours later some of the residents were taken to the health center, the Director for the Emergency Medical Response Unit at the Ministry of Health Mark Luke said, “We can confirmed that the total of 20 to 25 people were exposed to the chemical chlorine gas poison and sent to the hospitals”.
According to Luke, the owner of the local scrap facility did not know what was in the tank but just bought it as a scrap to dismantle and ship it out of the country.
However, he said the Ministry has been making some interventions to calm the situation.
“We have been working to contain this situation, because it is very deadly poison. It is a chlorine gas poison. We gave oxygen and a lot of water because it affected their respiratory track that is responsible for breathing,” Luke said.
Advertus Nyan Mianah, Disease Surveillance Coordinator of the National Public Health Institute, added that the situation has been put under control by the related authorities to minimize the risk of more people been affected from the chemical pollution.
Mr. Mianah further stressed that residents in the MTA community expressed frustration in Adam Industrial Company, accusing the scrap company of ignoring the situation at first.
John Saah, Chief of Public Safety at Liberia National Police, said asserted that the alleged seller must take the responsible.
“The massage first goes to the alleged seller; they sold harmful substance to their customer knowing that it is harmful. It is good for your entity because it is good for water but it is not good for the community,” he said.
“So if you’re about to sell such substance to someone who is selling scrap. It is your duty to dispose the chemical that is in it. Leaving the chemical in it dangerous and harmful.”
Commissioner Saah, however, assured that the LNP safety division would work with the relevant authorities to probe the incident.
“We will get to know if it is Water and Sewer, or who sold it? Because if it is chlorine that it has to be Water and Sewer or the Ministry of Health. Those are the two entities that I believe deal with chlorine, so if Water and Sewer actually sold the tank to the company, they must be investigated,” the police commissioner added.
With a swift intervention, Representative of District #12, Dr. George B. Samah described the incident as a ‘sad day” for the community.
He, however, lauded the intervention of the government but called on the Police to speedily investigate the incident to avoid occurrence.
Rep Samah, however, promised to pay the hospital bills of victims, and at the same time, warned the owner of the scrap facility to properly examine scrap that he would buy to avoid recurrence.
Reporters Jaheim T. Tumu and Jackson Kanneh Contributed to this story