One cat may have started a gas leak that resulted in a strong explosion, which destroyed two restaurants of the Coco Bambu group in Teresina (PI), on December 21, 2022.
Gym, stores, clinics and other establishments located nearby were impacted by the explosion.
The Civil Police investigation report analyzed the security cameras, site plans and equipment, in addition to hearing witnesses.
According to the authorities, the Vasto security guard reported that he heard a crack around 3 am, in addition to a sound “compatible with a gas leak” and a very strong smell of the product.
He then warned the Coco Bambu security guards and tried to contact the manager of Vasto and the Fire Department, but was unsuccessful. This, according to expertise, happened at 3:40 am, and the explosion occurred at 6:30 am, indicating almost 3 hours of gas leakage.
It was also found that a maintenance assistant was staying overnight at the restaurant that day. The employee informally reported that this was because he had done extra work off-site and had finished too late and lived too far away.
Upon waking up, he smelled a very strong smell of gas and closed the main valve, located in the gas house. After a while, the employee went to the kitchen entrance hall and turned on the extractor switch, “probably with the intention of dissipating the gas that was confined in that environment”.
According to the police, the spark ignited the explosion. It is not known, however, if the maintenance assistant turned on the equipment by his own intention or if it was induced – previously, security cameras caught him on the phone, as if he were talking to someone.
The man suffered burns and was unconscious. After waking up, he looked for an ambulance in the parking lot of the place, being attended with burns on his body.
According to the Hospital de Urgência de Teresina, he had 57% of his body burned.
Cat and other hypotheses
According to security camera footage, a cat was walking around the kitchen at “several points and at a compatible time” when the Vasto security guard heard the noise coming from the area and smelled gas.
“The feline was large and large enough to accidentally trigger an equipment that used gas, such as an industrial stove, for example, and there was also the possibility that it had torn off some of the internal supply hoses of equipment that are held by pressure clamps”, says the report.
The researchers work with two other hypotheses. The first concerns a possible failure in pressure regulators, which may have caused high pressure and leaks.
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The report says that it was not possible to inspect the equipment, since, on the date of the survey, there were no specific tools and technicians to avoid a new leak or defect in the removal of the same.
The other possibility raised was equipment failure, which could have been caused by manufacturing or operational failure. However, the police say that a more in-depth analysis was not possible because of the force of the explosion and the state of the materials after the event.
human factor
The authorities also highlighted in the document that if the security guard had gone to the gas plant and closed the main valve, the leak would have been stopped and the explosion would not have occurred.
However, this was not done “without being able to say whether it was due to negligence or omission or due to lack of knowledge and training passed on”.
“In the case of the Vigilante, this one, necessarily, due to the fact of working in a restaurant, should have the minimum knowledge/training for notions of safety and action in cases of gas leaks and fire, in the case of leaks, the first recommended action is closing the general valve and moving away from the site until the gas has dissipated into the environment”, explains the report.
The maintenance assistant’s attitude of activating the exhaust was considered “wrong”. Both actions were classified as being directly related to the explosion.
A CNN contacted Coco Bambu and Vasto to comment on the case, but did not receive a response so far.
*with information from Letícia Naome and Thais Magalhães, from CNN
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
