Illegal gas operations shrouded in silence

- File

Firefighters try to put out a blaze resulting from an explosion at an illegal gas station on Elspeth Avenue, off Hagley Park Road, in Kingston, in March.

Klao Bell, Staff Reporter

TWO families, living on either side of what was an illegal gas station on Seventh Street, Greenwich Town, are now boxed into a few rooms in the fragments of their house. They are victims of an explosion from the station.

In one yard, a family, which includes seven children, is cramped into two rooms. In the other yard, 10 people share two rooms.

Next to one house, the foundation for a two-room house has been laid. Residents say they have received building materials from concerned persons and they are slowly rebuilding. But while they were willing to talk about the struggles of constructing a new house, they are unwilling to discuss what had brought them to that place. Every question put to members of both families, about living next to such a hazardous business, went unanswered.

"Mi nuh know, mi know nothing," was a typical response.

One person quietly said "a true a ghetto area yu caan seh nothing." Another said: "The man was good to the people, help the children them go school."

"The man" is the operator of the illegal station. No one will talk much about him. People who live in communities where illegal gas stations thrive wear powerlessness, fear and silence like a cloak, while operators brazenly conduct business with anyone who knows about them.

The danger, made evident by two massive fires that destroyed four houses and left 45 people homeless, have not stirred the community members into outrage and militancy. Neither has it convinced operators that their trade is life-threatening.

It has been reported in The Star that the first fire on Seventh Street in Greenwich Town, Kingston, in January, was started by an explosion which occurred when petrol, which was being transferred from the trailer into a car, seeped out and, with sparks from the car's muffler, started a fire.

Explosions

The report says the fire quickly spread to several drums nearby that were filled with gasolene. The drums exploded, some rocketing into the air and onto houses on each side of the premises.

In April, another illegal gas station exploded on Elspeth Avenue, off Hagley Park Road in St. Andrew. More than $30 million in damage resulted from the destruction of a 10-room house, three motor vehicles and more than forty 55-gallon drums of petrol. Two firemen were injured and two dogs burnt to death.

A man, who identifies himself as a friend of the owner of the Elspeth Avenue operation, said he had told him several times to stop selling the gas.

"Mi warn him, I don't know what drive him to sell it, but I tell you is a good man y'nuh, him just trying a thing," he said.

But when The Sunday Gleaner pointed to the risk to life and property in the community, the man said his friend was just trying to make a living.

Two residents on Elspeth Avenue claimed to have moved there after the fire, and an elderly woman refused to speak to The Sunday Gleaner. She said she was in a hurry.

Several illegal gas stations, many in the Corporate Area, are run behind high walls and fences. But they are open for business to anyone who drives up to their gate. Men and women from within the communities serve as gas attendants and their job is dangerous to their health.

To dispense the fuel, a hose is placed in one of the five-gallon buckets. An attendant then puts his mouth over the other end of the hose to create a suction effect that causes the fuel to flow, before placing that end in the tank. Stockings are wrapped around the end of the hose to filter dirt, but the attendants do not wear protective gear.

Gasolene splashes over their clothes and shoes and spills over the tank. It is washed off with water, sometimes with a hose, other times, the hand is used to wipe it off.

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