OfReg opens inquiry after vehicle explosion
(CNS): The Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) has opened an investigation into the suspected illegal storage of fuel at a private residence on Mangrove Avenue in Prospect after a minivan exploded last Wednesday, 7 September. OfReg said the blaze appeared to erupt while a vehicle was being filled with gas outside a residential apartment block. The fire was brought under control by the Cayman Islands Fire Service and attending police officers. OfReg said its fuel team, which was on site to examine storage equipment at the location, had seized a significant quantity of gasoline and diesel under the Dangerous Substances Act.
Duke Munroe, OfReg’s chief fuel inspector, told CNS that it is illegal for people to store more than 250 gallons without a valid operating permit and there is no real reason why anyone would need that much fuel at a private home. He said people would only normally store fuel in a residential area for a generator or propane tanks for energy needs, such as stoves, water heaters and other domestic appliances.
In this case, OfReg believes much more than the legal limit was being stored but they were unable to say why such a large quantity would be kept at a residential location. While no one was hurt during this explosion, there was significant damage to property and equipment at the site.
“These illegal operations which fly under the radar continue to present significant danger to the public and the environment,” Munroe said. “We rely heavily on members of the public to report these situations to us so we can take appropriate enforcement action.”
Where fuel is stored below the legal threshold for permanent or temporary storage, the office is available to provide guidance on the safe storage and transportation of dangerous substances.
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Category: Local News
Esso fuel selling cheap at your nearest neighborhood. 🇯🇲
Munroe & OfReg will need a consultant from overseas to do the investigation for this vehicle fire? we the Public look forward to seeing the final report from OfReg.
Who in OfReg, DEH and CIFS will be the lead investigator for this incident? Does OfReg have a ticket system like the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service? (to fine the property or land owners similar like a traffic offence on the road the Police Constable would fine the registered or Driver of the Vehicle at the time the offence is committed such as speeding in 25 mile zone on the road)?
Say it isn’t Jamaicans – turning Cayman into “yard”!
I guess it wasn’t! They wouldn’t do anything like that!
OfReg in the role of investigators, is beyond laughable. They can’t even discern their own published fuel quality reports and investigate regular unleaded gas being sold interchangeably in Blue and Green quality pumps, for a 30 cent spread per gallon, x 1000s of duped local customers, x years…
Hang it up, OfReg. You haven’t done anything before. Why try now? A good leader would have never cobbled up a mess like OfReg ! OfReg is a waste of money…… a BIG waste of money!!!
The blind eye mentality is strong in Cayman. Perfect example are the junk vehicles parked on the side street 30 ft from the front door of the WB police station.
Yep. And they are now just dropping junk cars on the island in red bay next to the marina boat junk yard. Speaking of that, who knows what dangerous chemicals are just left around all those boats next to a bunch of residential properties.
And the heavy equipment repair yard. Thanks a lot Briggs, not got enough cash already? You need to ruin the residential area next to your marina? With this and the drug… I mean fishing boats coming in and out it’s just a real pleasure to live in the area. SMFH.
Has anyone from OfReg attended a sufficient number of seminars, visited enough trade shows, and received extensive training on how to conduct an inquiry, or will they bring in a consultant for this?
They are going to need a new F350 in order to properly investigate this.
No, you need 4. With time off to run your own business, deliver tank loads of fuel to under the radar distributors and the constant re-filling required, all the resulting paperwork, vacation, illness, pretend illness, Covid, and Hurricane Ivan, it will take 4.
Even then.
#Leggewasright.
It would probably help if they all went on a 4-day “retreat” to brainstorm the issue.
I predict that would be a waste of time and money too.
That won’t work. Just disband them and let them find a job they could handle.
They already have jobs they can’t handle.
I will vote for that!
They must of stayed in a holiday inn express!
Makes them expert’s now lol
They all come from a marketing background and never touched a tool, let alone understand what they are looking at!!!!!!
True…..
So who’s insurance do we think is paying up? The property owner or the minivan owner?
Sadly these informal and substandard car mechanic garages are all over Cayman, in plain sight and hidden away on back roads. No CIG entity is willing to take action until there is a significant public problem such as a fire or pollution of the environment. Not only are these illegal garages in residential areas, but we also have the family houses now partitioned off into tiny apartments where garbage is piled up and scattered by chickens and the public roadways become parking lots for these tenement yards. Lord knows how the increased sewerage is being handled by septic tanks sized for a 3-bedroom home.
Drive along Red Gate Rd and admire the junk cars and piles of garbage overflowing out of inadequate bins. Drive in Bodden Town, especially next to the Webster Memorial Church, and gaze upon the lovely vehicles in various stages of wreckage.
Lack of enforcement by CIG’s entities and lack of political will to pressure the relevant entities.
Sadly, the former Jewel of the Caribbean is now toxic, poisoned, overdeveloped, lawless land of corruption. Nothing is going to change that. Ever. This land is lacking true leaders. This land is not producing true leaders. Blame it on genetics or an Universal curse, I don’t know. Things would only get worse. Eventually “the big money” would abandon this sinking ship, leaving its inhabitants at the broken trough (figuratively speaking).
Sadly couldn’t agree more.
Right on the doorstep of the water plant on Red Gate. A time bomb waiting to happen. If contamination reaches those wells the plant is done and so is George Town’s water supply.
Quite right, 4:31, the house lot right next to Webster Church in BT looks like something out of West Kingston. Right on the main road. Full of young men doing…..what? Anyone like to guess how many derelict abandoned vehicles there are scattered around Cayman? 2000? More?
*enquiry
Have some respect for the queen at this time.
Interesting to see which high ranking Govt officials that this land owner has as friends……that’s why absolutely nothing has been done to date considering its been reported for 3yrs.
Can apply this logic across Cayman.
Someone needs to die or come close to it and then all of a sudden its a problem….
Another example of the fire-aim-ready approach our Govt. follows in everything is the first eejit to die on one of these electric scooters…..rented with no helmets and as fast as a moped all over the roads….and conveniently parked outside bars…..
Mr Munroe can you also please look into the storage of the large quantities of explosive material (fireworks )that seem to appear every Christmas in the carpark of a popular Prospect bar. It seems a blind eye is being turned to the improper handling and storage of these dangerous items. Should we wait for an incident before proper regulations are developed and enforced.
2.58pm What about all the gas and diesel storage tanks on S.Church St and the vast array of propnane storage tanks on Walkers Rd, both in residential areas with the latter also being close to schools.Maybe Ofreg could send some of it’s bright sparks on courses to find out why this is not allowed in developed countries.
Those facilities were there long before the residents. Who told them to build nearby?
1.54 pm Govt. recd independent expert reports many years ago that both these faclities should be moved to isolated areas.
As for building homes who do you think granted them planning permission?.
My guess woud be CPA!
This is a small scale incident from improper handling and storage of hazardous materials at a residential level. The same issue is happening on a larger scale across the country. It’s not uncommon for businesses to stockpile and store hazardous chemicals improperly. No oversight as to what is been stored and where . Total lack of regulations and oversight of these products. It will not be long before there is an incident on a much bigger scale.
Case in point was the huge explosion in Lebanon a few years ago.
JamRock!
Caymaica
With the fuel price being as eye-watering as it is, the cops should get involved here. Fuel theft from large companies and government institutions is not unheard of, this needs more than an Ofreg inspection.
Real questions run deeper tho …
a. Where are they getting the fuel to resell?
Would have to be pre-retail distribution to be a viable business concern eh
b. Are truck leaving depots w/ petrol accurately being accounted for in terms of what is reaching the gas station retailers?
c. Is the average Joe really paying attention to how much petrol was in the tank when you parked it at night?
Just food for thought …
Gasboy. No action. No accountability. #Leggewasright.
Welcome to Cayrock.
Here’s one conspiracy theorist’s guess. Boats travelling out of the Cayman Islands can purchase gasoline and diesel without paying the government tax. It’s not that far from the fishing boats on Marina Drive to Mahogany Drive. Discount fuel immediately becomes a lucrative business for somebody.
Who do those boats buy the fuel from and where do those persons acquire the fuel to sell to those boats?
Don’t understand what is said here!!
One boat fuel location advertises this system (roughly): have Border Control come to check the vessel out, i.e., depart CI immigration & customs control. Pull up to the pump and fuel boat. Station records your exit documents and rebates you the duty price on your fuel. You then immediately leave the country for your next port of call. (I assume they then claim back the duty from CIG/Distributor on their next order. But not germane to the issue at hand.) System seems legit and all paperwork would be in order, as well as CBC & the fuel operator watching you leave.
But obviously would rely on boat not turning around after leaving the dock and going somewhere else. However, before we conspiracy too deeply, if you unload half your fuel and then leave you’re putting yourself at needless risk of a much more expensive (dangerous) problem at sea. (You would only be making 75-85 cents per gallon on the fuel, as that is all the duty is. Even if you had a thousand gallons thats less than $1,000 profit, not a lot of money to risk running out of fuel at sea for.) So this is unlikely to be a reason/source of anyone stockpiling fuel.
More likely someone thought they could hedge the market, get a load of fuel two months ago and then pump it themselves to ride out the price spike we all knew was coming. (Lets call that a $2 price difference, on a thousand gallons that seems relatively worth it, if you’ve got a thousand gallon tank handy.)
Or if you fuel up your government vehicle and then promptly siphon half the tank into containers, it’s free and the margin is way bigger 😉
Any marina, and there is one at the end of the aptly named Marina Drive. Mobile tankers can also refuel ocean-going vessels, and there would be no reason for anyone (other than those in the know) to suspect anything if a vessel ordered fuel from a mobile provider, siphoned it off, and then filled up again at Harbour House Marina on its way out to fishing grounds.
“We rely heavily on members of the public to report these situations to us so we can take appropriate enforcement action.”
This particular instance has been reported for years… Took this to happy for OfReg to do something. Failing us again
I really don’t believe OfReg is worth a bottle of urine. Why does the government let them get rich off the Caymanian people? WHY?????????
“..and there is no real reason why anyone would need that much fuel at a private home.”
With all due respect, you don’t get to determine the legitimacy behind what other people do. Just because your comfy job might allow you to not have to do certain things and pay someone else to deal with your problems, doesn’t mean everyone else is in your situation.
Now, does that mean this person doesn’t pose a risk to other around him with this type of action. Of course not. This could have ended up so much worse and I acknowledge there is an argument to be made on limits and regulations around how things are stored if the risk of injury can occur to others who are not involved with the action.
I guess my pet peeve is just when the all intelligent government officials, our betters who take our money to achieve nothing, start telling us what is reasonable and not based on their ivory tower lifestyles.
My boat parked on my property holds 300 gallons
Is it a cruise ship?.
Illegal operations do not fly under the radar. They are overt and in plain sight, for anyone who can be bothered to see. #Leggewasright.
What about the flagrant illegal immigration workers all over the construction sites? Housekeepers, landscape people, car wash workers are working on loads of big job sites in Cayman but does immigration ever do job checks? Unqualified workers paying Cayman front people to get a work permit and then have to go find their own work. They are contracting jobs but no business license, no insurances, but they give cheap prices. This is killing the contractors who are trying to follow the laws and compete with these illegal contractors.
What about the flagrant and quite frankly dangerous planning violations ignored every day by the Planning Department? Not long now before one of those causes a major fire (again).
You can report this anonymously on the WORC website, it gets directed to the right entity immediately.
BULLSHIT! Criminal conduct has taken hold everywhere. If WORC really did its job, status grants would be being revoked and some of the untouchables would be in Northward. #Leggewasright.
Just look at the Bodden Town , Next to Webster Memorial Church! In plain sight!!
The BTE MP too afraid to deal with that situation
WE certainly do not want to anger anyone who might vote for BTE MP or for that matter any of the MP’s!
See no evil, hear no evil, do no evil is what I always say.
You not see nuttin!
Those are his woters playing his kind of music and practicing his culture 5:25
Jamaican MP won’t deal with Jamaican lawbreakers reporting to Jamaican police.
Does that answer your question.?
I wonder if illegal fuel storage operations such as this is leading to the recent uptake in vehicle fires?
“These illegal operations which fly under the radar continue to present significant danger to the public and the environment,” Munroe said.
Why not tell us how many times this particular location was reported Duke? And how many times those reports were ignored.
Make a FOI request to find out.
Anti Corruption Commission? RCIP? Governor? FFS!!!
Duke was busy monitoring fuel prices!
I am very upset that OfReg did not include the discount fuel provider on Mangrove Avenue on its list of places, and most recent price, where we can purchase fuel.
As is Duke’s job. of which he does a pretty good job.
Sounds like an awesome job, sign me up to drive around (on the governments dime) to look at roadside signs everyone else can also see.
And deciding what colour pumps should be
10.56am Several contributors to this article have used the phrase “fly under the radar”.Might I suggest this is inappropriate here in Cayman, as we don’t have a radar to fly under.