kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
While the families of fallen divers Fyzal Kurban, Kazim Ali Jr, Yusuf Henry and Rishi Nagassar shed tears and cried for justice near Paria’s Berth No 6 yesterday, returning to the site where he lost his friends was too much for Christopher Boodram. He sat at the San Fernando Yacht Club with his back turned to the sea as he waited for the grieving families to return to shore on the one-year anniversary of the horrific tragedy at Paria Fuel Company Ltd.
“I do not think I could bear to see the site, the area of the incident, maybe for the same reason I cannot look at the ocean right now and why my back is turned to it. Every time I see that particular area, it is instant flashbacks, so I prefer not to put myself through that because since this whole ordeal happe ned, I still have not gotten a proper night’s sleep. I still have a lot of trauma I am dealing with,” Boodram said.
As Boodram looked at his family, he was grateful to still be alive after surviving a plunge into a 30-inch pipeline under the sea. When he thought about the day, there was sadness that he did not return to the pipe to rescue his friends and bitterness that no one else did.
Families, friends and supporters of deceased divers met at the Yacht Club around 3 pm and got on private boats to travel to the Pointe-a-Pierre harbour.
In a media release, Paria said it supported the families’ memorial but with port regulations. Paria said the Pointe-a-Pierre port was a restricted zone under the Shipping Security Regulations 2004. Therefore, it could not allow privately owned and operated vessels within 100 meters of the facility.
It said that Ali Jr’s wife, Jamie Manodath-Ali, sought permission to host an hour-long prayer and reflection on behalf of the families in the waters surrounding Berths No 5 and 6. Paria was willing to grant permission under certain safety and security guidelines, including them using the company’s owned and operated vessels. However, Manodath-Ali declined.
Paria said its intent was not to restrict the families but to ensure they were compliant with the relevant laws and regulations.
“Paria has spoken to the president of the San Fernando Yacht Club and provided the port advisory notice, outlining the port restrictions to be conveyed to all private boat owners who will be participating in this afternoon’s memorial at sea.”
Paria said it held observance between 8 am and 8.30 am on Thursday with a moment of silence and safety stand-down meetings throughout the company with its employees and contractors, discussing lessons learnt and a review of HSE areas of improvement implemented.
The crews with family members encountered the police Coastal and Riverine Patrol Unit close to Berth No 6. The officers told them to stay 300 meters away but eventually allowed them to venture closer.
The police and coast guard kept a watchful eye. Tormented by grief, Nagassar’s common-law wife, Vanessa Kussie, held onto their four-year-old son, Nashhik, and cried.
Henry’s mother, Nicole Greenidge, hugged her daughter, Afeisha Henry, as tears streamed down their faces. Ali’s parents, Kazim Ali Snr and Dr Catherine Ali, broke off carnation flower petals and threw them into the sea. Kurban’s family pumped their fists in the air, shouting, “We want justice.”
Just a few hundred meters away, on February 25, 2022, the five divers were inside a hyperbaric chamber carrying out subsea work on Paria’s Sealine No 36. Shortly after lunch, a Delta P event sucked the divers into the pipeline. Boodram escaped by dragging himself and swimming through the oily line. Despite his pleas for responders to rescue his colleagues, they died without an attempt made.
Diver Christopher Boodram, back turned to the sea, looks at a picture of his late colleague Fyzal Kurban at the San Fernando Yacht Club yesterday.
RISHI RAGOONATH
A year later, Boodram said they should have been celebrating that day as having survived a close one. He only came to support the families, despite feeling like he failed to get help for his friends or return to the pipe to rescue them.
“If I did not fail, those fellas would be here today, and that is the truth.”
Boodram continues physiotherapy and mental therapy, which makes him unable to work. He owes his family’s survival to his wife, Candy, who is a nurse.Candy admitted that the incident changed her family as Boodram was a different man. She said his trauma leads to unnecessary arguments that never occurred before.
“I trust in God. I am a believer, and I know that one day this will pass, and we will overcome this,” Candy said.
Boodram hopes that he could at least return to recreational diving one day. He acknowledges that Candy does not share his desire. He said the only justice available for him and his friends was prosecutions against those responsible for their deaths and financial compensation for the families.
Boodram’s appeal among CoE recommendations
Boodram’s appeal was among the recommendations proposed to the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the tragedy, which concluded last month. Prakash Ramadhar, who represented Kurban and Henry’s families, recommended criminal charges against Paria for failing to attempt a rescue and blocking others from entering the pipeline. Paria’s attorney, Gilbert Peterson, SC, told the CoE that the state-owned company had no legal responsibility to rescue the divers. Its only duty was to support emergency and action rescue plans LMCS had for its employees.However, LMCS attorney Kamini Persaud-Maraj said Paria was not blameless in the incident that caused the men to enter the pipe. Persaud-Maraj said Paria tried to save money by relying solely on the contractor’s expertise and did not hire their own consultant to carry out checks and balances on the maintenance work.CoE Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, suggested that the CoE recommend that the Occupational Health and Safety Authority prosecute both Paria and LMCS for breaches of the OSH Act.In a statement, the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) urged the CoE to recommend that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights form part of T&T’s laws. The CCHR said human rights go beyond legal rights and issues because they are universal, indivisible, and irrevocable. These remain the rights of all human beings, including those trapped in a 30-inch pipeline buried beneath the seabed.CoE Chairman Jerome Lynch, QC, is expected to deliver a draft report of the findings into the incident to the President of T&T in April. Lynch still has to view the hyperbaric chamber on March 14 and 15.
