–Temporary offices established at St. Stanislaus College, no lives lost, guns and ammo safely removed

ENGINEERS are currently working on plans to rebuild the Brickdam Police Station in Georgetown, which was completely gutted by fire on Saturday morning, destroying years of police records and millions of dollars worth of vehicles, according to Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn.

The Brickdam Police Station was the Headquarters for the Guyana Police Force’s Regional Police Division 4 ‘A’ that housed the office of the regional commander.

The devastating fire, which reportedly started in the eastern section of the compound at 11:06 hrs, destroyed more than 80 per cent of the structures, including the Property Room, Inquires Office, Traffic Department and Officers’ Mess Hall.

The fire also damaged a business place located on Hadfield Street, immediately behind the Station.

Minister Benn described the fire as “a great loss”, but noted that systems are being put in place to restore operations as quickly as possible. He reiterated that the government is committed to facilitate and support getting their central police station building back in operation as quickly as possible.

“Rest assured that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) team will be working to make sure that all the arrangements for calls to the GPF control centre will be done and put properly in place.

Currently, the issues relating to future building are already being considered by our engineers; we have already told them to think now about what we need in terms of a temporary location, and in terms of a design for a new police headquarters building for 4 ‘A’ at Brickdam,” Minister Benn told a news conference at his Brickdam office after the fire was extinguished.

ALL SAFE
The Home Affairs Minister disclosed that some 16 people were in police custody at the police station at the time the fire broke out, but clarified that all of those persons, along with the ranks on duty, were able to safely make their way out of the compound.

By the end of the fire, the buildings that stood three stories high were completely gutted. Additionally, several vehicles in the compound were destroyed, as officers could not easily remove all of them due to the deadly force of the blaze.

Minister Benn indicated, however, that ranks were able to save several vehicles from the compound, as well as some documents. He noted that work will be done to reconstruct several pieces of important documents that were destroyed in the fire.

“Assessments have to be made of the loss of equipment. There is loss of vehicles; some equipment; some exhibits; both motorcycles and cars, and other items which are exhibits. Work will have to be done to reconstruct some files which were lost, but the police made valiant efforts to retrieve much of the files,” the security minister said.

TEMPORARY LOCATIONS
Temporary police offices have been established at the St. Stanislaus College, further up the road on Brickdam, to deal with reports and other police-related matters. This was decided through collaboration with the Ministries of Home Affairs and Education.

Commissioner of Police (ag), Nigel Hoppie noted that this tragedy will not slow down the operations of the Force. “That will not deter us; we have already started immediately to put systems in place to ensure that we are keeping with our mandate of service and protection to the citizens,” he said, adding:

“We lost several buildings; we lost also vehicles. Some are from matters under investigation, while others were vehicles that were destroyed. Some, in a significant way, belong to the GPF.”
Commissioner Hoppie explained that because most ranks were conducting patrol duties at the time of the fire, none of the “operable vehicles” were damaged.

The ‘Top Cop’ also disclosed that guns and ammunition were safely removed from the buildings before the fire spread. What is left standing in the compound at the moment are the police barracks on the western section of the compound; the “clay brick” Impact Base building; and the Brickdam Lockups.

The Brickdam Police Station housed 398 ranks belonging to the Commander’s Office, Traffic, Impact Base, and CID.

Meanwhile, when asked if he had any idea what or who might have caused the fire, the ‘Top Cop’ said he did not want to venture a “guess”, but would rather pronounce on the matter once the Fire Service completes its investigation.

Commissioner Hoppie committed to members of the public that there should be “no fear” about the Force’s ability to react to any public issue that requires the intervention of ranks from the Brickdam Police Station.

“We all know police operations depend on our records. As it is, we have to do an inventory into what records we would have lost to the fire. But, operationally, we will be able to continue our day-to-day operations in the streets of Georgetown, because our ranks were on the road on patrol when the incident occurred. All of our operational vehicles were saved, so, we don’t have an issue in providing that service for the community,” said the Police Commissioner.

Meanwhile, several high-ranking government officials made their way to the devastating scene on Saturday, among them the Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall; Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira; Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill; Minister of the Public Service, Sonia Savitri Parag; Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand; Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud; Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy; Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Anand Persaud; and Member of Parliament, Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev Datadin.