Today, Friday, 26th February, 2016 at about 2:26 pm, a long fuel tank, at Eddie’s garage, located in Kisenyi, along Musajjalumbwa road, and next to MAKUDUS HOTEL, exploded and fatally wounded, 3 welders who were patch-welding weak points atop a Mercedes Benz-ACTROSS fuel tank under Reg. No. CGO-4478-AA-99/4476-AA-19. The tank that was being repaired previously contained fuel, which had been removed but not gas-freed.
The Police technical team of experts from the Directorate of Counter Terrorism responded to the scene that had been secured by the area Police from the Old Kampala Police Division.
The Preliminary investigations reveal the probable cause of the fuel tank explosion, as the sudden release of highly accumulated pressure, built inside the closed fuel tanker, which ruptured the weak points atop the fuel tanker, causing a mechanical explosion along the line of weakness. The lead covers were scattered to a distance of 100 metres away, and pieces of regular, but, not well defined metallic pieces, were recovered for further forensic analysis.
The bodies of the 3 dead persons that included; Semwanje Siraje, a welder, Sserwanga Godfrey, a co-welder, and Ivan Yanga, who died on the way to hospital, were transferred to the city mortuary, at Mulago National Referral Hospital for further post-mortem analysis.
To avoid the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents at motor vehicle repair premises, the police urge all proprietors to always conduct careful assessment of the risks involving mechanical processes that generate flames, sparks or heat (hot work) including welding, cutting grinding and sawing. In the alternative, they should consider using cold cutting or cold repair techniques, to help guard against mechanical processes that are life threatening.
