The family of 35-year-old Massy Energy and Energy Industries employee Allanlane Ramkissoon are calling for answers surrounding the accident at NiQuan’s Pointe-a-Pierre facility last Thursday, which led to his death.
Although the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries has launched an investigation into the fire at the plant, the family says they have been left in the dark from the start and are questioning if the incident is being covered up.
Last Thursday, Ramkissoon, a pipefitter at Massy Energy, suffered burns to 60 per cent of his body during a flash fire at NiQuan Energy’s Pointe-a-Pierre plant.
Ramkissoon was flown to a specialist burns unit in Colombia for treatment but died on Sunday.
With uncontrollable tears, his parents and six siblings told media that he was their backbone.
Speaking from their St Croix Road, Lengua Village, Barrackpore home yesterday,his mother, 66-year-old Christine Ramkissoon, said she was still trying to recover from the death of her eldest daughter in 2021 from COVID-19, and now she is faced with the death of another child.
In a GML report, she said Ramkissoon provided financial and other support to her and his 72-year-old father, Danny Ramkissoon, who suffers with health issues. She said they depended heavily on him, as he was the only one of her six other children, two daughters and four sons, with a steady income.
“I don’t know how I will make out. It really hurting me,” she said.
His younger sister, Ruthlane Ramkissoon-Gobin, has listed the questions that they want answered.
She said: “We want to know where is the incident report? What exactly happened to my brother? Where was the HSE officers? Who checked to see if this plant was safe before they sent my brother? It just looking like a cover-up to us because we not getting any information. What OSHA has to say? What the companies have to say?”
Ramkissoon was married.
His wife left to be with him in Colombia while another of his siblings watched their two daughters, ages 13 and 15.
His eldest brother Johnlane said Ramkissoon had stayed home on the day of the previous explosion at NiQuan in 2021, and he begged him then to resign because the job was too dangerous.
In a release yesterday, the ministry said it received a report of the incident, in which Ramkissoon suffered severe burn injuries while conducting preparatory work for planned maintenance works on the plant.
Extending sincere condolences to Ramkissoon’s family, the ministry said a team comprising a petroleum engineer, a mechanical engineer, a chemical engineer and a petroleum inspector have been mandated to investigate the incident to determine the root cause and contributory cause(s) of this incident.