Deja vu: Pungent fumes force CSO lockdown

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Hundreds of workers at the Central Sorting Office and Post and Telegraph Department in Kingston were greeted with a frightening déjà vu yesterday as once again, an offensive odour chased them out of their workplace.

It was on February 28, 2013, that the workers were forced to flee from their offices as some of their colleagues collapsed after inhaling noxious fumes.

Yesterday, February 14, the customary Valentine's Day was all but forgotten as the workers had to relive another frightening ordeal.

"We are celebrating our one-year anniversary," quipped a female staff member who was wearing a mask. "And we don't even know the source of that a year later."

But this time around, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) says it has unearthed the cause of the odour that has put workers on edge. NEPA has confirmed Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre reports that the source of the fumes was an oil tanker parked on a neighbouring property.

NEPA's manager of pollution monitoring and assessment, Oswald Chinkoo, disclosed that the fumes had escaped through a vent on the tanker and had seeped into the CSO building.

He said the CSO building was also checked to ensure there were no fumes being released from inside.

This was corroborated by Kathy Ann Yettman, the public relations manager for Jamaica Post.

She told The Gleaner that teams from NEPA and the Ministry of Health had cleared the building.

"I can't see exactly what has caused the odour, but what I can say is that NEPA and the authorities checked our grounds and buildings and found the odour coming strongly into one section that led them to our neighbours."

TANKER BLAMED

Well-placed sources had informed the Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre that a tanker located on the neighbouring premises was determined to be the source of the offensive smell that forced the evacuation.

As it was last year when several staff members collapsed, at least two workers yesterday fell victim to the pungent fumes.

Other workers, who piled on to the sidewalk on Norman and South Camp roads, kept their hands over their faces as they were not wearing masks.

Although word came later that the CSO building was safe, indications are that it will be a hard sell to staff members who expressed concerns, even as firefighters rushed to the scene to ensure that all was well.