MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, March 28th 2024 - 22:56 UTC

 

 

Major reforms to sullage plants in Gibraltar following last week’s fire

Monday, June 6th 2011 - 06:32 UTC
Full article
“Independence of the Seas” was very close to where the explosion and fire occurred “Independence of the Seas” was very close to where the explosion and fire occurred

Gibraltar Government is likely to have fuel services, including sullage plants of the type that caught fire last Tuesday and injured welders and cruise passengers, moved away from their current location.

In an interview with GBC Chief Minister Peter Caruana also announced that the Gibraltar Government has commissioned an inquiry saying the lessons have to be learned and poured cold water on suggestions that the plant might be rebuilt where it stood.

“I think that is unrealistic as there is no prospect of the plant being allowed to restart operations,” he said.

Mr Caruana said the authorities have to get to the bottom of all aspects including operational methods. The proposal now, which will go through a consultation process, is to expand the terminal facilities and move fuel installations elsewhere.

On resources for the fire itself, Mr Caruana said that with the benefit of hindsight the resources had been insufficient to deal with that incident but this was not unusual in itself.

“Ports and neighbours collaborate with each other. We indicated to Spain almost immediately, once the incident happened, that we would call on their resources as soon as they were required. This is exactly what we did,” he said.

He said he was happy with that collaboration and rejected “politically motivated criticisms from the usual quarters.”

The Chief Minister said no stone will be left unturned to get to the bottom of how the incident occurred and whether there should have been welding going on at the time the cruise ship (Independence of the Seas) was there. Many aspects of the incident will be thoroughly investigated and lessons learned put right for the future, he said. This may include upgrading first response capabilities.

Mr Caruana said that the cruise companies have been hugely supportive and two vessels had called since the incident despite the expense and inconvenience of having to tender their passengers. The affected cruise company Royal Caribbean has also been “hugely supportive” and reassured that the incident has no implications for their view of Gibraltar.
 

Categories: Politics, International.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!