THE Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) is appealing to the local business owner who have operating small mini depot here in the country to think safety first.
RSIPF Commissioner Mostyn Mangau said: “As we understand before we operate those mini depots apart from the main depots setup from the country, our local must be think of their safety first, their customers as well as their community they’re operated in.”
He said there was an incident happened at Obo’obo village in Central Guadalcanal where a 38-year-old woman who operate a fuel depot caught on fire when serving a customer on the 4th of this month, and sadly the woman has lost her life.
“The incident should have been avoided if safety was considered in the very beginning when planning to operate the mini fuel depot to support her community,” Mangau said.
However, the decease has housed her canteen, a barbeque and her mini fuel depot under one roof, so when she went in to serve the customer where the fuel was stored, refilled the fuel bottle and on her way out from the shed she accidently tripped and dropped the fuel container from her hand and spilled to the barbeque plate that caught fire, he said.
Thus, Mangua has appeal to those mini depot operators to think of their safety first, the public and the community before involving in such business.
By FOLLET JOHN
Newsroom, Honiara
