Coney Drive Fast Food explodes on to CA Boulevard
Posted: 19/10/2007 - 11:48 AM
Author: Anita Nembhard
Police and Fire Department personnel are investigating the strange case of what appears to be a butane gas tank leak that eventually led to an enormous explosion and fire on Thursday night/Friday morning, October 11/12, sometime after 12:00 midnight at Coney Drive Fast Food, located at the corner of Central American Boulevard and Banak Street.
A preliminary investigation by the authorities has ruled out a grenade or bomb explosion, and has revealed that there was a leak inside the building coming from a butane tank that is located outside the building near the back wall.
The butane leakage in the building was ignited by a deep fry stove that apparently had been left on in the kitchen area, said a Fire Department official.
Coney Drive Fast Food closed for business around 9:00 p.m., and the three employees working that night left the building by 10:00 p.m., we were told.
The Fire Department’s Operations Officer, Michael Middleton, told the newspaper that from their investigations they have ruled out the possibility of an explosion caused by any other elements, such as a grenade.
Middleton told us that the butane tank had leaked for at least two hours or more.
The explosion was massive, hurling a burglar bar on the front window all the way across about 30 feet of cemented yard and across the Boulevard, to land on the grassy median that separates traffic on Central American Boulevard. Debris was strewn over the yard and the street. Metal louvers that formed the window behind the burglar bar landed in a twisted heap on the sidewalk on the other side of Central American Boulevard.
The glass front door of the building was shattered, and the explosion caused a large wooden canopy to be blown off its four posts. Some of the chairs and tables that were inside the building were thrown out on impact, and the rest was blown to the other side of the building.
Middleton told us that there was structural damage, mostly caused when the explosion pushed outwards and took down the weakest point of the building.
It damaged the back door and two front shutters, and ignited a fire within the kitchen area, said Middleton.
At 12:20 ,early Friday morning, the Fire Department was alerted. When they arrived at the area at around 12:25 a.m., they had to quickly extinguish a fire that had begun at the northwestern corner of the building in the kitchen area, said Middleton, who added that they had to use about 200 gallons of water to put out the fire.
There was no one inside the building at the time of the explosion.
Coney Drive Fast Food opened its doors to business at the new location as recently as three weeks ago, we understand.
The owner, Ruth Logan, was unavailable for comment. Today at around 10:00-11:00 a.m., workers were seen arriving to begin their shift for the day. They were surprised at the devastation they saw.
We were unable to speak with any of the workers, because they had to quickly leave to go to the police station to give their report.
By the end of Friday, renovation had begun on the building.
The owner of the building reportedly is Esmond Willoughby, who lives in the United States. An Esmond Willoughby was Commissioner of Police of Belize in the late 70’s, but we could not verify if it is the same person.
Occupying the upper portion of the two-storey building was a 25-year-old domestic, who was upstairs asleep with her three young children, ages four, six and ten. They were unhurt.
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