Herstelling woman survives gas bottle explosion, suffers severe burns

A 50-year-old woman is lucky to be alive after a leaking gas cylinder caused an explosion at her shop located at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara on August 1. Jaiwantie Samaroo suffered second and third degree burns about her face and body.

Jaiwantie, a mother of five, started her day as she would any other day.

She and her husband operate the grocery shop and on that day, Jaiwantie changed her gas cylinder bottle with intentions of cooking when gas leaking from the bottle caused an explosion.

“The bottle was like ice- cold and meh tek out the bottle and put in a new bottle and me nah smell like gas, cause if me been smell gas me won’t nah light but as soon as meh light, the thing flare up and me pitch like halfway the shop,” Jaiwantie recalled during an interview with the News Room on Monday.

Following the explosion, neighbours rushed to her assistance and called an ambulance.

Jaiwantie’s husband, Randolph Pereira followed her downstairs that day but went back to answer his phone when he heard the explosion.

“At first I get a little confused and watched through the window to see if it was an earthquake cause this thing was sudden,” Randolph said.

He then saw his neighbours running towards his house and heard his wife screaming.

“When I came down, her clothes was on fire and I had to assist by pulling off the clothes,” Randolph recounted.

He explained that at first his wife didn’t look as though she sustained any serious injury “but it is afterwards then we see the extent of the burns she got.”

The woman was hospitalised for one week and could not walk due to the extent of her injuries. She suffered second and third degree burns on her face, arms and feet.

“Me couldn’t walk because of the pain. My family them nah expect this, my mother, my sisters,” Jaiwantie said.

The couple opened their shop three years ago and lost millions in the explosion.

“In the shop alone goods, haberdashery we estimated about $2.4 million in losses, and to restore the shop it cost me $855,000,” Randolph said.

When the News Room visited on Monday, the shop had already been repaired and Jaiwantie was recovering and walking again. But the incident has left the family traumatised though thankful to be alive.

“Everybody was traumatised, everybody thought this lady lost her life. You see when God is with you, all things are possible. He was really in the shop with this lady at the time because she not supposed to survive that explosion,” Randolph said.

The shutters from the shop also ended up across the road and Randolph added: “Thank god nobody was passing and thank God nobody came to the shop to call.”

Randolph said he hopes more can be done to raise awareness about the safety of gas cylinders.