After a full day of battling the raging blaze, fire department officials launched an investigation into the cause of the fire.
Police were investigating reports that the blaze started around 10:30am Saturday at the rear of Sun Manufacturing Limited, as a result of an explosion that was believed to have been triggered by a workmanﾒs welding torch.
As smoke began to spread through the inside of the stores, workers and customers were quickly evacuated and taken across the street to safety. Upon arrival, police quickly blocked off the area causing a major traffic jam.
A fleet of fire trucks assembled a relay system, which granted them access to an abundance of water from the nearby waterfront. Firefighters in full gear could be seen battling the blaze, which seemed difficult for them to contain at times.
The fire had spread quickly to the storage area of Discount Mart, with thick, black plumes of smoke streaming from an area just above the store, which housed executive offices for plaza stores and the marketing firm, Ad Works.
As the fire was in what appeared to be its early stages, one fireman described the blaze as “very dangerous” because of the possibility of a major catastrophe due to the amount of flammable substances in the storage rooms of some of the businesses in the plaza.
Around noon, firefighters began to give the signal that they had contained the fire to one portion of the building and officials at Super Value, whose establishment suffered mostly smoke damage, opened the doors attempting to air it out.
But the fire shot up again and began spreading east, engulfing other stores in the plaza. It took firefighters well into the night, and early Sunday morning to put it out.
“When we arrived we met the fire in the area of The Paint Shop,” explained Corporal Patrick Colebrooke. “We made efforts to contain the fire. At some point the fire did gain an advantage on us and we took several hours to contain the fire.”
Firefighters were forced to knock down a portion of the complex to smother the fire. One firefighter was taken away to receive treatment for smoke inhalation on Saturday, but according to officials no one else was injured.
This was not the first blaze at the plaza.
A fire in 1988 destroyed Super Value food store. Super Value owner, Rupert Roberts, told The Bahama Journal on Saturday he felt lucky that his store was not greatly affected by the latest fire.
He said that being so near to Discount Mart one would have expected there to be some fire damage at Super Value.
“Fortunately, fire didnﾒt hit our building,” Mr. Roberts said. “Our sprinkler systems havenﾒt been activated because usually water can do as much damage as fire, but there has been no fire in our building. Therefore, no (sprinkler) activation and thatﾒs why we are so lucky ﾖ no fire and no water.”
One of the businesses that suffered greatly from the fire was Ad Works. Describing the events as chaotic, the companyﾒs Managing Director Beverly Hilton said luckily, most of her business is creative and in the brains of her staff.
“We will be contacting our clients and letting them know where everything stands,” Ms. Hilton said.
“It is quite a loss, but we are insured and we will be pulling everything together just as soon as we humanly canﾅIﾒm sure we will be able to get back up and running very quickly.”
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
