Residents in St George’s have called for action over a foul stench from the Ferry Reach oil dock.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said the smell had forced him to stay indoors and shut all the windows.

He added: “When it first starts, the stench is so bad in two seconds you get a headache. My throat starts burning really bad – I mean really, really bad.

“This heavy fuel oil, they have got to stop using it. Belco alluded that they would use a lighter fuel, but then they brought the same ship back with the heavy fuel.”

He said that he and others had contacted the Government in October when an earlier shipment of heavy fuel oil caused similar problems and that they were promised the problem would be dealt with.

But the stink returned when a shipment of oil arrived at the fuel docks on Monday.

The resident said: “We have had problems in the past with some of the fuel, but this is by far the worst that it has ever been in the years that I have been here.

“They are saying that this heavy fuel oil meets the standards, but I don’t believe that.

“I believe they are sourcing this oil from some cheap place at a cheap price and it’s terrible.”

He said, based on past visits, the smell sometimes lingered for days after the fuel was offloaded into tanks, depending on the direction of the winds.

The man added: “It’s affecting all the neighbours. We have called Kim Swan and Walter Roban because it’s intolerable. It has got to be fixed.

“Bermuda is too small for this heavy fuel oil. If people are smelling it all the way on Kindley Field, something is wrong and it has to stop. It’s not suited to be used here in Bermuda.”

Members of the public complained to The Royal Gazette that they could smell the fumes more than a kilometre away from the dock.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Belco did not respond to a request for comment last night.

But Kim Swan, the area MP, said he had contacted Wayne Caines, the president of Liberty Group, which owns Belco, and Walter Roban, the Minister of Home Affairs, about the odour.

Mr Swan said: “They are looking into it and I’m waiting to hear back from them.”