Produce Buying Company (PBC) has commiserated with the families of three men who died at the company’s fuel tank site at Effiduase in the Eastern Region.

It has also refuted claims that the three who died may have been misled.

According to PBC, it contracted the services of “IEP Makeswift Engineering Company Limited who presented their credentials and came highly recommended by another contractor- AS Marine (who services one of our fuel pumps) as a company that cleans the Underground Storage Tank (UST).”

It noted that: “Contrary to the reports by NADMO, at no point was IEP Makeswift Engineering Company Limited misled as to the content of fuel storage tanks.”

It further noted that: “All operational vehicles in the company run on only diesel and those fuel tanks in question, contained diesel.”

The three lost their lives while engaged in maintenance work at the fuel reservoir within the COCOBOD (Ghana Cocoa Board) office premises. They were part of a team of five technical experts contracted by the PBC workshop to carry out essential maintenance work on the facility.

The two additional workers perished while attempting to rescue their colleague who had entered the reservoir.

Their other colleagues present at the scene raised an alarm and the security authorities came in to begin rescue efforts.

An integrated response team, comprising personnel from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Municipal Secretariat, Effiduase Police Command, Ghana Ambulance Service, and the Ghana National Fire Service, rapidly converged on the site to facilitate the retrieval of the victims' bodies from the underground tank.

The circumstances leading to their suffocation inside the fuel reservoir remains unknown as investigations are currently underway.