–says acting Fire Chief

THE Guyana Fire Service has concluded that the fire that destroyed the Guyana National Industrial Company Incorporated (GNIC)’s storage bond was “maliciously set.”

This is according to Fire Chief (ag), Gregory Wickham, who said that the fire service has concluded its part of the investigation and will now hand over the report to the relevant authorities.

“The cause of the fire has been determined by the fire service to have been maliciously set by person or persons unknown. The next step is that the information would be fed to the relevant authorities and they would have to take it from there. The fire service’s job has been completed, which was to find the cause of the fire,” Wickham said during a telephone interview with this publication on Thursday.

He added that he could not share details on what contributed to the GFS determining the cause of the fire as being deliberately set. Wickham, however, confirmed that the fire service had reviewed available video footage from CCTV cameras as part of its investigation.

“All necessary investigative skills were used to come up with the cause, but detailed information as to what [led to the determination of the cause] we cannot disclose that because in case the matter is taken to the court, that could hamper the trial of persons. So, we would not release that kind of information. We would have looked at CCTV footage, but we cannot disclose that information either,” the Fire Chief (ag) said.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in damages were recorded after the fire destroyed the bond being utilised by Laparkan.
There was also minor water damage and fire damage to a storage bond being used by the Tropical Shipping Company. The fire was first observed at approximately 23:30 hours on Sunday.

Items destroyed included propane cylinders, a quantity of barrels containing food items, clothing, and household appliances.

Laparkan also suffered the loss of one Bobcat machine; a quantity of office furniture; gas cylinders; crates of energy drinks; three 40-foot containers containing electrical cables and flex hoses; three electrical transformers and three 40-foot refrigerated containers.

Eleven vehicles were also destroyed, while five were severely damaged and three others were slightly damaged. Laparkan has not released any statement on the fire since the incident on Monday.

During its initial investigation on Monday, the fire service, in a statement, had noted that the Laparkan facilities did not have any fire-prevention measures in place.

“There were no smoke detectors, fire extinguishers or fire hoses installed in the building. Smoke detectors and sprinkler systems play a major role in preventing fires, while fire extinguishers are useful in putting out small fires,” the GFS statement had said.

Wickham said the GFS is willing to work along with Laparkan and all other commercial companies to get the facility equipped with proper fire prevention systems.