Family in mourning as young man succumbs to injuries suffered in work accident

Though grieving the loss of her only child Brian Moore, who died less than 48 hours after 95 per cent of his body was burnt while working at Arawak Cement Limited, Sharon Moore is feeling a little comforted that just last week her son told her he believes there is a God.

“He is my one and only. That’s my heart. I trying to be strong. Brian was young and I don’t think that he would want me to be breaking down,” she told Barbados TODAY as she stood in the patio of her parents’ College Savannah, St John home where she was being comforted by loved ones.

“I have memories of when he would come home and make me laugh and do things. He would listen to old dub and oldies, and when something comes up that he likes he would say ‘Mummy, come, hard tune’ and he would raise up the radio and party. He was my heart. He kept me going.

“Just last week he was talking about God and I said to him, ‘Brian, you believe there is a God?’. We don’t go to church but he said, ‘yes, Mummy, I believe there is a God’. It makes me feel comforted that he believes in God.”

According to police, around 3:08 a.m. on Sunday, 22-year-old Moore and two other workers were overseeing a Portland cement mixing process – in which raw materials are heated in a kiln to temperatures as high as 1600 degrees Celsius – when a blockage was observed. The three-man crew took steps to fix the blockage and the hot mixture was expelled, causing injuries to two of the employees.

Moore, a plant attendant, was completely covered in the hot mix and process supervisor Vincent Ellis “sustained radiant exposure”.

The injured men were transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) where Moore was listed as gravely injured, and Ellis was detained in Ward B7 with burns to both hands and feet.

Moore’s mother, who works with the Barbados Prison Service, said the last time she saw her son before the incident was Saturday night before they both left home for work. She recalled that they had a conversation around 3 p.m. when he returned from having a sea bath.

The 55-year-old said it was just after 5 a.m. on Sunday when she received a call that her son was injured at work and was taken to hospital.

“When I got there, he had on the oxygen mask and you could hear the gurgling in his throat but he couldn’t speak. His eyes were shut so he couldn’t see me. Ninety-five per cent of his body was burnt. It was only his feet that didn’t burn because he had on his boots. When I saw him, I just know that he wouldn’t make it from just the condition he was in. I think I did all of my grieving Sunday when I saw him.

“What little I hear is that he and his supervisor were dealing with a blockage. He was a plant attendant and that is what he usually does. He and his supervisor were clearing the blockage and from what I understand it explode. I don’t know how or in what way, but it is a powdery substance and it does be real hot. He got the brunt of it,” she said.

Moore passed away on Monday night after 8 p.m. in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.

“In the beginning, the people at Arawak were trying to see if they could airlift him. But the doctors say he would have to be strong enough to make the flight, so they had to be monitoring him but his vitals weren’t looking good. And then his organs began to shut down so then there wasn’t no hope to do the airlifting,” she said.

The grieving mother described her son as a mannerly, perfect gentleman who was loved by all in the neighbourhood.

She said he loved football and was dedicated to a football team in the College Savannah community. He attended the Christ Church Foundation School, completed sixth form at Combermere and studied mechanical engineering at the Barbados Community College.

Moore participated in an internship programme at the Barbados Light & Power Company before starting work at Arawak Cement Plant.

“He never really stayed home. He worked shift and he would go and come. If he had five sick days, he had a lot,” his mother said, noting that he would have celebrated his 23rd birthday on January 7.

“He didn’t really have plans for his birthday. He just said ‘Mummy, my birthday coming up’. He had three vacation days coming and he would have been home for Old Year’s, New Year’s and I think January 2. But even if he didn’t plan nothing he would have tried to enjoy something in that three days for his birthday.”

Moore’s grandmother, Yvonne Harewood complained that she was yet to eat a full meal since learning about the tragedy which took away her grandson who was always willing to help others. Harewood said Brian had told his grandfather that he would cut his hair on Sunday.

“He wasn’t a bad child. He wasn’t unruly or anything like that. He was very mannerly. The young, old, everybody loved him. He always liked to share jokes with you,” she recalled.

Harewood said she was broken that instead of thinking about ways to best celebrate her grandson’s birthday, the family would have to be making funeral arrangements.

Today, the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) said in a statement that it was saddened by Moore’s death and Ellis’ injury. It described the incident as tragic and untimely and extended thoughts and prayers to the families, friends, and colleagues of the deceased and injured.
(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)