Massive blaze - 37 stores destroyed ar Portmore Mall - Lack of fire equipment hampers response

By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter

FIREMEN, ILL-EQUIPPED to quell a massive blaze, fought one of the largest fires in Jamaica's commercial history yesterday.

The blaze in the sprawling Portmore Mall, St. Catherine, saw hundreds of millions of dollars in goods, equipment and fixtures going up in smoke. Thirty-seven stores and offices housed in the Mall were affected.

The more than 60 firemen, drawn from stations in the Cor-porate Area and St. Catherine, found it difficult to penetrate the smoke without critical breathing apparatus. For the greater part of the morning, they watched as a few of their colleagues sprayed the searing entrance with gallons of water while balls of toxic smoke billowed from the Mall's zinc roof.

The fire blazed for more than five hours as it spread throughout the complex of closely built shops. Firemen were initially hampered in their attempts to enter the compound and later found they could not gain access to some of the offices.

Commissioner of the Fire Brigade Major George Benson said that preliminary estimates of the damage done to the Portmore Mall showed that losses will run into hundreds of millions of dollars. He said a more accurate assessment of the cause of the fire and damage will be available today, after members of the Fire Investigation Team complete their examination of the site.

Among the stores and offices des-troyed were those of the National Com-mercial Bank, the Jamaica Public Service Company, Churches Co-operative Credit Union and the Singer Sewing Machine Company. A number of smaller stores on Block B of the Mall were also destroyed.

"It's a disaster. It's been difficult be-cause we are short of equipment, like the breathing apparatus that we would need to go in and try to put out the blaze from the inside. We are trying our best to see how we can deal with this," said one fire-fighter who had been on the scene just minutes after the fire started at 5:30 a.m. It was not until 9:25 a.m. that the fire-fighters received one breathing apparatus equipped with an oxygen tank to assist with the fire control. According to the firemen, IGL lent them six self-contained breathing apparatus and they were assisted with smaller gas masks by Petrojam.

It took the combined effort from members of the York Park, Spanish Town, Portmore and Old Harbour fire stations, along with assistance from the Ministry of Water and Housing's Rapid Response Team and the JPSCo, to decide that it would be better to attack the fire from the roof. But even at this point the fire-fighters indicated that there was a shortage of saws to cut through the roof. With a strong wind fanning the flames, they didn't have much time to rip the roof apart.

Scores of onlookers and store owners who were unable to save anything from their stores watched helplessly through tear-filled eyes as the flames destroyed years of toil. "I spent my whole life building this place," said Warren Garvey, operator of Garvey's Place Restaurant. "A major fire like this and the firemen have no gas masks. When I came here first at six o'clock this morning the fire was at Singer, I never imagined that it would have spread all the way to my place."

The cause of the fire was not ascertained at press time last night, but preliminary reports from police indicated that it started inside the Singer Sewing Machine Company. It was not until about noon yesterday that the fire was brought under control after the firemen had successfully cut away the roofing which linked section B to adjacent buildings.

One store owner who tried to remove stock from his store, slumped over a mahogany showcase in desperation after a policeman told him he could not go back inside the mall, because the smoke which had spread through the central ventilation system was toxic.

"What I must do?," he asked in plaintive voice in between wheezes, "I have three stores on this mall, two here and one over there," he added pointing to section B.

"I have to go to the other store but a need to get out the things from these two first," said the young owner as he pleaded with the officer. He retreated into stony silence when he was informed that all the stores in Block B were completely destroyed.

Two men who attempted to loot the stores were arrested by the police who held a strong presence on the scene to prevent further attempts.

Several workers, especially those employed to smaller stores, said that they empathised with their bosses but were more concerned about how they were going to find other jobs. While it is not certain how many persons will be out of work as of today, some of the employers at the Mall indicated that there will be no need for their current workers, at least until they recover from their losses. Leroy Bucknor, general manager of operations and customer service at NCB said a "sizeable amount" of the workers from the bank's Portmore branch had already been redeployed to the King Street branch.

Late yesterday afternoon, Arnold Bertram, Local Government and Community Development Minister, ordered an urgent review of the Jamaica Fire Brigade's response to the fire at the Mall.

The Minister said he had met with Major George Benson, Fire Brigade Commissioner and Delroy Brown, Chairman of the Fire Brigade Board at the site of the fire. They agreed that given the extent of damage to the properties and the length of time spent battling the blaze, the brigade had to assess its method of response and state of preparedness for handling fires of this nature.

NEW ARRANGEMENTS

SOME COMPANIES have put measures in place to continue business transactions and facilitate queries.

NCB said customers at its Portmore branch who need to access their accounts may visit the third floor at NCB's branch at 54 King Street, downtown Kingston. That branch can be contacted at 922-6250-9.

Yvette Nunes, marketing manager for Churches Co-operative Credit Union Limited, said that its 7,000 customers can transact business at its Spanish Town branch or the head office at Eureka Road in Kingston, until further notice.

The JPSCo has asked Portmore customers to use payment agencies to settle their electricity bills and call the utility's toll-free line, 1-888-225-5577, to get their queries

The NWC is encouraging customers to pay bills at Paymaster and Bill Express outlets, NCB branches, Bank of Nova Scotia, as well as NWC commercial offices. The customers may call toll-free at 1-888-991-6992.

Back to Lead Stories