Saturday will make it one year since an underwater maintenance exercise took a deadly turn when five divers, employees of LMCS Limited, were sucked into a pipeline at the No 36 Sealine riser on Berth #6 at Paria Trading Company Ltd, Pointe-a-Pierre.
Four of those divers, Fyzal Kurban, Kazim Ali Jr, Rishi Nagassar and Yusuf Henry, remained trapped in the pipeline and it took a few days for their bodies to be recovered.
Today, in the first part of a series looking back at one of the worst industrial accidents in this country’s history, Christopher Boodram, the lone survivor of that horrific accident, talks about that traumatic experience.
“How I can teach my daughter to swim when I fraid to go in the water?”
More than a year after the tragic accident that almost claimed his life, Christopher Boodram’s distress and pain are almost palpable.
He has been receiving counselling since the February 25, 2022, accident at Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd which took the lives of four of his diving “brothers”. But Boodram says he is scarred for life as the accident has robbed him of his peace of mind, livelihood and the ability to properly raise his children.
The day the accident took place was Boodram’s second day back at work after losing his mother the previous month and being diagnosed with COVID-19.
Shortly before 3 pm, four of the divers were inside a hyperbaric chamber trying to remove an inflatable plug from the pipeline. Footage from a GoPro camera worn by Ali Jr shows him diving into the water just off Berth 6 and swimming to the chamber to hand over a spanner.
What the five divers did not know was that differential pressure or Delta P had developed inside the pipeline when oil was being pumped out of it almost a month earlier.
By deflating the plug, they triggered the Delta P, which sucked all five of them and their equipment into the oil-coated 30-inch pipeline which runs along the seabed between Berths 5 and 6.
Boodram managed to crawl along the pipe until he got to the part of the line where they had been sucked in some three hours earlier. He was eventually rescued and taken to the San Fernando General Hospital.
A Commission of Enquiry was set up to investigate the accident after relatives of the victims and members of the public accused Paria of refusing to rescue the men.
Evidentiary hearings have been completed and a report is due to be handed in to President Christine Kangaloo on April 30.
Boodram is still struggling to come to terms with the deaths of his four colleagues.
“I think it difficult even going to the beach since this happened. My last daughter begging me to go to the beach because its a stone’s throw away but anytime I go there I would see (Berths) 5 and 6,” he revealed.
“My daughter is . . . going on 4 this year. How can I properly play with her? How can I teach her to swim if I ‘fraid to go in the water?” he asked.
He admits that he has been on a downward spiral since the accident: “Sometimes I just sitting down and I just get a flashback. Sometimes in the middle of the night I jump out my bed cold sweating, waking up my wife, disturbing her from sleeping whenever she’s home sleeping with me.”
In addition to these nightly terrors, Boodram is plagued by frequent “daymares.” He described the experience as a recurring nightmare as thoughts of his deceased colleagues consume his mind every day.
“It’s like a teabag. Every time you dip it, it getting darker, and darker and darker. That’s what going on here with this, it can’t come out of my head,” he said.
Although Boodram has spent most of his life working in the oil and gas industry, he cannot fathom returning to work as a diver.
“I don’t think I could re-enter the water, at least not right now. I used to enjoy going in the sea and fishing,” he admitted.
“I have a boat. Since this happened, I haven’t gone out there yet. It’s something me and my counsellor working on but as she says, baby steps.”
Boodram is still physically recovering from the tragedy and is undergoing physical therapy and counselling but he worries that he may not be able to financially support his family.
“It has been very, very tough. My wife is a nurse but after she meets the bills there is nothing more, little to nothing. I mean we have three young children...I didn’t ask for this to happen, it happened,” he said.
Before the accident, Boodram’s greatest pride was his ability to provide for his family. Now he worries about being able to make ends meet.
“A man’s pride is bringing home the bacon, it’s providing for his family, providing for his children. That was my pride, to say, ‘Hey, I did that.’ When you take away that, it’s like cornering a lion. You breaking me.”
Boodram and his family made it through the Christmas season was through the generosity of their well-wishers. While he is grateful for the assistance he has received, Boodram is disappointed and angry that no one from Paria has stepped forward to assist him or the families of the other victims.
He said: “It shouldn’t be where we have to highlight this in an interview. It should be, ‘Mr Boodram how are you coping with your injuries?’ I should explain how I am coping. It shouldn’t have to be, ‘Mr Boodram how are your finances?’ It shouldn’t be like that and I am asking for the authorities to put something in place for something like this happening to other people.”
As the lone survivor of the diving tragedy, Boodram often wonders why he was able to escape in the place of the other men, since they, like him, have families.
He admitted: “The only thing that makes me feel I had a reason to live is my kids and my wife, but sometimes I ask myself why, what is the reason I came out of there? What happen to the next four men? They didn’t have wives and kids and people who loved them? Yes, they have.”
He has been trying to power through his pain as his biggest goal is to ensure his children are happy, even if he is not.
“Even if I suffering inside, I can’t let that reflect on my kids. My kids have a life and I did everything in my power to make sure I give them a life that I never had and I will try my best not to let this get in the way of their life as best as I can” he said.
“I don’t know how much more my shoulders can take. Right now, it getting tired and weary.”
Boodram said he lives in the hope that all five families affected by the Paria diving tragedy will not be forgotten.
“Everybody saying that Boodram after a gold mine, Boodram after the money. If I am unemployed, how do I pay for my counselling sessions? How do I do that?” he asked.
“In my mind, these people owe me and I will do anything in my power to ensure these people pay me and the other families because one cannot go without the other.”
He said since the accident little to no help has been given to the families. He estimates that even a fraction of the money that Paria are yet to pay LMCS for the line maintenance contract on Berth 6 could have gone a long way.
“All the employees, all my colleagues who displaced, looking for work, that kind of thing, so why Paria didn’t even take $1 million you know and say well we’ll get to the bottom of this and deal with it. We just taking $1 million from this $5 million and drop in a little $100,000 a little $50,000 or a little $20,000 self. Or even self a monthly $500 hamper for these families? Why Paria didn’t do something like that?” he asked.
Boodram said he hopes the final report of the Commission of Enquiry into the tragedy will bring about some change in the industry.
