Fire crews were busy Monday morning fighting a large fire that erupted inside a third floor apartment of the Sea Sun Manor North complex and now police are investigating just how it got started.
Police say the fire started in the building, one of twin complexes situated on East Mall Drive, around 8:15 a.m. and quickly ignited the roof and several adjacent units, sending smoke billowing into the sky. Several fire trucks arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and additional units were radioed to assist in battling the raging inferno. Before long, fire engines from the Grand Bahama Airport Crash and Rescue Unit, BORCO and the Freeport Container Port had responded and helped to bring the blaze under control.
The roof of the three storey building was completely destroyed, along with a number of apartments on the third floor, police say. Police were uncertain whether any of the units in the building were legitimately occupied as there was no city electricity or water being supplied. Police suspected, however, that vagrants may have started the fire.
In an interview with The Freeport News just days before the fire, Dillon Knowles, Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) director of building and development services, regarding the state of the twin buildings, he revealed that the north complex was partially occupied while the south building was set for demolition.
Both complexes comprised of 44 units. The 88 units were runned by the same condominium association and many residents complained the twin buildings were an eyesore leading to the downtown area. Sea Sun Manor South’s occupancy certificate was revoked due to the damages sustained after Hurricane Frances in September 2004.
The condominium association was given a notice by the Port Authority to repair the building before it could be reoccupied.
After a period of time lapsed on that particular notification, Mr. Knowles says the association was then given a deadline notice to repair or demolish the building because the condition of the building worsened during the lapsed period of time.
“It is apparent that the association does not have the financial resources to be able to restore or repair the building and as such the Port Authority has found itself in a situation where it now needs to and is engaged currently in the process of doing its legal due-diligence to be able to demolish the building itself and to put a lien on the property to recover the cost of the demolition,” the GBPA executive said. The north building was still partially occupied, according to Mr. Knowles who noted that there because of challenges with paying the maintenance fees some units were not occupied. The building did require some repair. and the Port Authority had issued a deadline to the association to repair the unoccupied structures and the hurricane-damaged roof before the vacant units could be occupied again.
“The Port Authority has communicated with who we believe to be the current head of the association about two or three months ago,” he said, “but we have had challenges with that because the head of the association has changed on a couple of occasions over the last year and a half.”
While it was believed then that the north building could have been salvaged,
the fire has apparently changed all that.
As for how soon the demolition for the south building will commence, Mr. Knowles said, “The demolition process cannot begin until we do legal due-diligence on it and generate the official notifications to the association and/or its owners as is appropriate.
“That is a very complex situation because of the sheer number of individual condominium owners so I would not be able to give a definitive time frame on that.”
By: LEDEDRA MARCHE, Senior Freeport News Reporter
