A re­cent­ly pur­chased stove is be­lieved to be the source of an ex­plo­sion that dam­aged a small eatery at New City Mall in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

The ex­plo­sion, which oc­curred around 11 am, rocked the mall and sent busi­ness own­ers and shop­pers scam­per­ing out as the shop’s ceil­ing was dis­lodged and a glass show­case blew out send­ing shards fly­ing in all di­rec­tions.

The busi­ness, which is owned by San Juan res­i­dent Oma­daye Sookram and her hus­band Ad­win Ed­wards has been op­er­at­ing for the past 15 years.

Sookram did not suf­fer any in­juries in the ex­plo­sion but her em­ploy­ee, Lisa Lee, of Las Al­turas, Mor­vant, suf­fered first and sec­ond-de­gree burns, and cuts to her hands from the bro­ken glass. She was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where she un­der­went a mi­nor pro­ce­dure be­fore be­ing dis­charged.

Sookram said it was the first time she had ex­pe­ri­enced such an in­ci­dent, and she is now won­der­ing if the stove, which cost her $3,500, was up to stan­dard.

“The glass on the back shat­tered and fell off last week,” she said, adding that she dis­missed it when it hap­pened.

“To me, it wasn’t noth­ing big, it was just glass.”

She is now wor­ried about how she is go­ing to pro­vide for her 11-year-old son who re­turns to school to­mor­row.

“This is my on­ly form of in­come. I don’t know what I will do now as my whole shop mash up,” she said.

Sookram said she was ini­tial­ly told by fire of­fi­cials that the oven blew up but was lat­er told that it was a re­sult of the gas head she had been us­ing. She was un­able to say if and how she would start over now as her sav­ings were tied in­to the busi­ness.

Dam­age has been es­ti­mat­ed at over $30,000.