The explosion occurred at around 11:45 am Wednesday at the company's 33KV indoor switch-house at Powergen's Penal Power Station in South Trinidad.

This is one of the main power generation facilities that services a major part of the south of the country. There was a blackout immediately following the explosion.

The victims have been identified as 26-year-old Anil Jilal of Barackpore and 27-year-old Tarran Jilmit of Penal.  Both were killed  while working at the switch-house. A  third employee was also seriously injured.

Caribbean Net News spoke with Powergen's Corporate Communications Manager, Omar Khan, who said they are still trying to piece together exactly what caused the deaths of the two men and injury to a third employee.

The issue has now raised new fears about worker safety at many of the country's state enterprises, foreign multinationals as well as private companies.

Questions have also been raised about the effectiveness of the recently implemented Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), which labour unions and non-governmental origanisations and other civic minded persons have been asking for.

Earlier this year government had only implemented part of OHSA. There are now renewed calls for full implementation of the Act.

Meanwhile, the deaths of the two Powergen employees form part of a long list of industrial accidents over the years that have claimed the lives of workers.

Officials at the Power Generation Company of Trinidad and Tobago said they intend launching a full investigation into the incident and would employ an independent body to conduct the probe.