Victim’s dad wants answers

The grieving father of a man killed in a massive explosion in South Auckland is angry and has questions he wants answered.

Jamey Lee Bowring, from Huntly, was killed when a 100,000-litre fuel tank exploded at 1.30pm on Tuesday at hazardous waster company Salters Cartage in Wiri.

Company managing director Ron Salter said Bowring was carrying out unauthorised welding on the tank when it ruptured, sending shockwaves across the city.

However, Tony Bowring said yesterday his son would never have been stupid enough to carry out welding on a fuel tank unless he was instructed to.

‘‘Somebody has made a major f...ing mistake by sending my son up there with a gas torch,’’ Tony Bowring said from his home in Blenheim. ‘‘It should have been safety cleared before any bloody welding equipment was used.’’

Jamey Bowring was a contractor to Huntly-based company RaceWorks, which was measuring some walkways, Salter said, and there was no need for Jamey Bowring to be welding for the job he was there to do.

Salter said his company had strict welding policies in place and used gas-free meters so accidents did not happen.

WorkSafe and police carried out a full investigation at the site yesterday morning.

Jamey Bowring’s mother is the partner of RaceWorks director Trevor Ackers. Tony Bowring (also known as David) said his son had worked for RaceWorks for several years.

‘‘The guy was a million bucks – happy-go-lucky . . . my son would give you the shirt off his back.

‘‘The world has lost an amazing man and he will be forever missed. He had so much potential and he was . . . getting himself set up and bang [his life] was cut way too short.’’

The RaceWorks website describes the company as involved in ‘‘race car fabrication’’. Among the jobs the company lists are aluminium and stainless steel welding, rust repairs and general engineering, as well as other carspecific fabrication.

According to the Salters Cartage website, outside of work Salter races a sprint car at Western Springs, built by RaceWorks.

Salters Cartage describes its operations as providing ‘‘environmentally sustainable services to address the issue of the transport, disposal and recycling of hazardous waste’’.

The cause of the explosion is unclear but specialist fire investigators are looking into what happened.