By Prior Beharry
THE hyperbaric chamber that was attached to the 30-inch sealine where four divers lost their lives is now 60 feet beneath the sea.
This was revealed by lead attorney for Paria Fuel Trading Company and Heritage Petroleum Gilbert Peterson, SC, on the first day of the procedural hearings of the Commission on Enquiry into the tragic events of February 25.
Chairman of the Enquiry Jerome Lynch, QC, in his opening remarks enquired about the hyperbaric chamber. He said the commission wanted to visit the scene of the tragic incident on November 22 – the second day of public hearings.
In response, Peterson said, “We are able to say now that that chamber was being removed after the incident on the 22nd of March by LMCS.
“And I was to use a neutral term; it ended up on the seabed. It is still there, I am advised. Paria has taken no steps to interfere with it since they’re mindful that there was an ongoing police investigation and they did not want to attempt to interfere with that chamber.”
Lynch asked how deep it was and, Peterson said it was approximately 60 feet under the sea.
The hyperbaric chamber was located just above the sealine and used as a base for the divers.
Lynch said if the commission could not see the original chamber, he wanted to know if there was a similar one which they could see to get an idea.
Christopher Boodram, Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr and Yusuf Henry, employees of LMCS were conducting maintenance works around 2.45 pm when they were all sucked into the pipeline.
Boodram is the sole survivor of the incident. The bodies belonging to the other four were retrieved from the pipeline days later.
Subsea specialist Gregory Wilson is the only other commissioner.
