Thursday, December 04, 2008 Blast at tuna carrier accidental: exec
FISH port authority investigations ruled out on Friday that the explosion on a 4,000-metric ton tuna fish carrier at the fish port in General Santos City was caused by saboteurs, a top executive said.
Miguel B. Lamberte Jr., local manager of the Philippine Fisheries Development Corp., which manages the modern fish port complex, said the incident that led to the ammonia poisoning of reportedly more than 300 people was accidental.
"The cooling system of the fish carrier malfunctioned, leading to an explosion that caused the leaking of ammonia. Fortunately, nobody got killed since they were rushed to different hospitals," he said.
The fish carrier, which has an estimated load of 1,500 metric ton of skipjack tuna, is owned by Buena Swerte, a Manila-based fishing company, Lamberte added.
It has been docked for a week at the fish port when the incident happened on Thursday afternoon as workers were unloading tuna catches.
Lamberte said that fire trucks were deployed to spray with water the ammonia from the boat.
He feared the remaining tuna fish for unloading could have been contaminated with ammonia, a toxic element. (BSS)
