Fire Worry

-
Grazettes Business Fires Raising Suspicions

As investigations continue into the origin of today’s fire at Grazettes Industrial Park, which destroyed Tropical Beverages, one business owner says the situation is worrying.

While stopping short of charging arson, Colin Appleby of Glass Fibre Limited told Barbados TODAY: “I got a call at half past 4 this morning telling me there’s another fire in Grazettes and you think ‘Oh what’s left’.”

The fire was the latest in 18 months during which time Yankee Garments and Talius were destroyed. Those structures have since been knocked down. ”Three weeks ago this Wednesday I came in to find that my back workshop was totally destroyed with fire and nobody knew. We
think the fire started around 12 o’clock because the clock melted at 20 to 1. There was no fire alarm. It burned inside all night and totally destroyed what I had in there,” he said.

The managing director noted that despite the setback, the company was still able to meet all their outstanding orders. He also noted that the Barbados Investment Development Corporation was “totally supportive” and had provided another location nearby where they could operate
from temporarily.

He said he was told the cause of his fire was electrical and since then part of the building was rewired and tomorrow the front section, which served as a showroom and was still sooty, should be power washed.

He surmised though that there were “too many fires for it to be the wiring”. Appleby further noted that a van and a container belonging to other companies in the industrial park were also destroyed by fire recently.

Vandalism was also a problem, he said with acid bombs being thrown by children. “There is a lot of vandalism in the area. I haven’t seen it but people have seen kids throwing acid bombs. We did find a couple in the other workshop last week,” he added.

The manufacturer, who employs five persons plus himself and his wife, said that installing a sprinkler system would not assist their fire fighting efforts given the material they used in production. Moving out of the industrial estate would be too costly at this stage, Appleby said, so they were staying put.

The fire and residual smoke forced the closure of some nearby businesses. Executive Director of the Barbados Manufacturers’ Association Bobbi Mckay said in a separate interview that 16 people were affected by 4:22 a.m. blaze that gutted Tropical Beverages Limited, which was
operating since 1978 and made fruit juices.

She said that the association was trying to get some costing for surveillance equipment as they were no cameras in the area at all. After today’s incident, however, she said the BMA had to address the the issue. McKay said that a patrol team went through the area earlier but had seen nothing suspicious.

Efforts to reach the owner of Tropical Beverages were futile. Reports from the fire service indicate that the building was already engulfed when they arrived with ten men and the fire chief and his deputy.

Source: www.barbadostoday.bb

Comments

Badrinath said…
The fire is not easy. You will be responsible for the safety of co-worker when a disease outbreak caused fires. But eventually you will know how to respond and this can award you may be.
February 17, 2010 at 6:47 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6 Ton Obsolete Satellite Falling To Earth

-
Image
A nearly 6-ton satellite is gradually falling from Earth orbit, and parts of it could crash to the surface as early as Friday, September 23 (today), NASA officials said. NASA officials told ABC News overnight that they won't know where the satellite will hit until two hours before it enters the Earth's atmosphere, moving at 5 miles per second. The space agency's space debris experts predict that at least 26 large pieces of the satellite will survive the scorching temperatures of atmospheric re-entry. But exactly where the UARS satellite debris will fall is uncertain. NASA officials have said that the drop zone for UARS satellite debris could be anywhere between the latitudes of northern Canada and southern South America, an area that includes much of the planet. The satellite should re-enter over a 500-mile (804-kilometer) track, according to NASA officials. Since 75 percent of Earth is covered with ocean, there is a high likelihood that the satellite will re-enter ov...
Read more

Chief Fire Officer: Not Enough Citizens Taking Fire Prevention Seriously

-
Chief Fire Officer Wilfred Marshall has expressed concern about the high number of structural fires taking place in Barbados, in particular private dwelling houses and commercial building fires. Marshall has noted that while some fires are due to carelessness on the part of homeowners and others have been deemed as “suspicious”, a number of these fires have been classified as “undetermined”. Homeowners and people in general still have a role to play in fire prevention, he has noted. Speaking to the Barbados Advocate yesterday at Barbados Fire Service Headquarters located at Probyn Street Bridgetown, the Chief Fire Officer lamented about the number of fires of which the origin has not been determined. “I am always concerned that we have a high percentage of undetermined fires. We work closely with the police in terms of determining the cause of fires and so it is not only the Fire Service that is involved in determining the cause of a fire. We work closely with them as they bring a fore...
Read more