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Lessons because a fire at a butane depot is an absolute worst scenario and it is the first we have had in the city in decades. And questions because - by numerous accounts - the performance of the Western Gas employees when the fire started was not acceptable. Today we got to discuss both the lessons and the questions with the owner of the business Mike Reyes. Here's what he told Jules Vasquez:...

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"Fortunately we have an excellent - a superb fire department and I guess they got tested maybe for the very first time at this level but they did an exceptional job which created whatever could have been a catastrophe to have been minor."

Jules Vasquez reporting
Mike Reyes, has a lot to be thankful for. He's the owner of Western Gas at mile four and a half on the Western Highway and today he showed us what went wrong last week Thursday at his depot.

Reyes was out of the country when he got the call that there was a fire:

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"What happen when I got the call of course my first impression was thinking safety. When I heard the call the first thing I told my uncle who was the one in charge here 'please make sure the main valves are cut or completely shut off.'"

This is the main valve - but the fire started here in the pump house or what's left of it and it probably started with a spark from this switch box or this one.

From there it shot down the hose to this Mexican Bowser loaded with ten thousand gallons of butane - which was transferring LPG into the main tank.

And this is where that flaring combustion came from. The release valve on top is designed to release lpg in short sprays when the pressure gets dangerously high.

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"There were huge flames of fire popping up every so often every 20 seconds. What that was saying is those valves are called an excess relief valve. The job is at 250psi pressure in that tank; once it goes above 250psi their job is to open up to release that excess pressure so that there is no explosion."

The fire was being fuelled by butane, but also by these tyres - which caught on fire.

But it was a design flaw in the pump house that started it all.

Jules Vasquez
"Were you aware that there was a design flaw in the pump house?"

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"Absolutely not, of course if I had any idea of something of that sort I would have immediately taken care of it."

Jules Vasquez
"You should have known better. I can't even use my cell phone at a gas station when they are pumping gas. You should have known that wherever there is electricity and butane or LPG in the air, you have a chance of a fire."

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"Absolutely Jules and as you rightly said earlier today those equipment work with pumps and motors unfortunately - they need electrical output. The thing that we are seeing is contactors that they found being the problem. We need to make sure that these contactors are kept as far away as possible. So that's something along the way that we are learning. You are never told to learn that."

Jules Vasquez
"How you didn't know that Mike? You are such a veteran at this business."

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"Again Jules we are humans. We look at everything, we did everything, we hired an electrician that was certified which we also expect them as being an electrician - come here and do what they need to do properly."

Jules Vasquez
"If you were to put them in separate locations you would have to hire more people - it would become more costly, so then it could be argued that you kept the electrical switch for the pump and the butane operatus in the same room as a cost saving mechanism."

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"Absolutely not Jules. We will not spare a buck in the event of safety. In 29 years of us being in business praise God we never had an accident except for today."

But ultimately, the relevant authority - which is the police department - did review approve and sign off on the design and installation - as hazardous as it was.

But there is no authority that government the training of employee s- and by most accounts his did poorly:

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"Of course logically as humans when you get put into a situation where in an instant your life is at threat - the first thing your instincts will do is life preservation. So I am not going to argue the point that my employees didn't run. But what I can tell you by the deputy fire chief as I sat with him yesterday was that my employees were very instrumental in working along with them to make sure that this fire was put under control."

Jules Vasquez
"The conduct obviously - there are those who are employed to ensure public safety above self-preservation such as a soldier or a policeman. If they see something scary happening or somebody shooting a gun they don't run. Their job is to subdue an neutralize the person with the gun, the same way if I work in a butane facility my first job is to ensure public safety - yes self-preservation but I have to know that I am dealing with something that can endanger hundreds of lives."

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"Absolutely, if they said they ran Jules, let them tell me where they ran to. They probably move away from the immediate flame but they didn't leave the premises."

Emil Torres - Sales Manager, Bravo Motors
"I saw them come to inspect it and they ran. Looks like everyman for themself."

Jorge Orellana - Businessman
"Looks like the workers were not well trained because they ran away instead of minimized the damages, they just ran away."

Jules Vasquez
"Mr. Orellana who lives and had some employees across the street - he says that when he was running towards this area he saw your employees running towards the checkpoint, that's what he said. The people at BRAVO said the same thing. I am saying yes we have a human reaction but you have an obligation to maintain public safety."

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"Again Jules, if what you saw happening doesn't confirm public safety I don't know what else will because what Mr. Orellana talked about and I am not going to argue, I wasn't here - speaking to the fire chief, he said he didn't even see that gentleman around. So again we are talking about hearsay like the Belizean says. I am not dealing with hearsay - I am here to prove the facts and whatever mistakes or error we did I am going to make sure that this never happens again."

While witnesses do differ vastly with his understanding - the Fire Chief agrees that there must be more staff training:

Col. Francis Thomas - Fire Chief
"First of all, more training for the people who look after these types of facilities - that's definitely one of the things that was clearly was indicated in some of the interviews that we have heard before where the attendants did not quickly withdraw from the fire. Those are sort of things that we will probably initially look at."

Indeed it was a learning experience - but not a costly one

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"In our inventory we have absolutely not one gallon of loss, let me explain myself. What happen when these tankers come in usually they bring in 100-150 what we called overage - that's to compensate for us with evaporation of the gasses. So as we look at our inventory and close books we found out that basically what we loss was that little excess that we were supposed to gain when then tanker came in here - thank God."

So then what flared off in those balls of fire is about 100 to 150 gallons of butane.

Now, the job of rebuilding and refitting the pump house is at hand - and this time they are consulting widely before:

Mike Reyes, Western Gas
"I have met with the fire department. I am not going to do anything unless they give me their recommendations which Mr. Smith has told me he will do. We will sit down with him on the drawing board with his recommendations, I will be getting drafts also from my counterparts in the US to re-verify their modem of operation or installation and we will make sure that this never occurs again."

Reyes explained that the Western Gas Depot is not fully operational yet - and thus, it was not ensured.