Three workers including a student on industrial attachment from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have been confirmed dead following the spillage of hot water from a boiler at Juaben Oil Mills Limited in Juaben.
The company belongs to the Chairman of the Council of State, Nana Otuo Siriboe II, who is also one of the directors.
The explosion occurred around 9:00am on Tuesday, October 65 when most workers were at post.
But five got injured with three losing their lives late Tuesday while receiving treatment at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
Operations at the company have been temporarily suspended.
In an interview with Media General‘s William Evans-Nkum on Wednesday, Supply Chain Manager at Juaben Oil Mills Nana Yaw Siriboe said the accident was not an explosion as being reported but one of “mechanical failure”.
“It wasn’t an explosion as such. We did not experience an explosion at the boiler. An explosion is whereby all the safety valves fail and you have this explosion due to pressure build-up. This was not an explosion.
“This is what I call a mechanical failure in the sense that all the safety valves were intact, pressure was not built up to optimal pressure and it was just a break in certain parts that caused hot water to spill out.”
Mr Siriboe maintained that for the past four decades nothing of that sort has been recorded at the firm.
Source: 3news.com|Ghana