Investigations into the fire that devastated the Ministry of Health on Friday are ongoing and while a string of questions linger about security at the building there have been no new developments.
Acting Fire Chief Marlon Gentle was unavailable for comment yesterday despite efforts to contact him, but Deputy Fire Chief Winston McGregor said that as far as he is aware investigations on the ground are ongoing.
Since the police released a statement following the blaze confirming that incendiary devices, ‘channa bombs’ were removed from the ministry’s compound there has been no further word from the authorities on the status of the investigations.
Meanwhile, police said in a statement issued yesterday that they are investigating the discovery of two channa bombs in the compound of the Ministry of Public Works and Communication at Lamaha and Parade Streets on Sunday.
A labourer attached the ministry found the two glass bottles with channa, nails and cloth wicks which are now in the possession of the police, the police statement said.
With regard to the Health Ministry fire, it is still unclear whether a comprehensive report was taken from the three Brans Security officers on duty that night.
Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy has criticized the level of security at the ministry and has also spoken firmly about security breaches on the night of the fire. Ramsammy said he was concerned about who was behind the attack on the building, but noted yesterday that his current focus is on normalizing operations at the ministry.
He said services at the ministry are up and running but “not under ideal conditions”. Ramsammy said it would be at least a week before operations are normalized.
It was some time before 3 am on Friday when fire sparked by channa bombs erupted in the top flat of the ministry’s main building at Brickdam and raged on for some three hours devouring records, vehicles and several key divisions within the ministry.
Police later removed channa bombs from inside the compound and also discovered that louvre windows on another building in the compound were damaged and pieces of glass and channa were found on the inside and outside of the building.
Prior to the Ministry of Health blaze on Friday several other ministries have succumbed to fires and or were affected over the years, and in recent times two were the targets of channa-bomb attacks.
In May last year gunmen attacked the Ministry of Culture on Main Street throwing two channa bombs into the compound shortly after blasting off shots at the nearby WaterChris Hotel. The bombs failed to ignite. Reports were that a car had passed by and two channa bombs were thrown at the building and the northern side of the building was shot at. The perpetrators were never found.
In April 2004, three men had hurled channa bombs at the Ministry of Home Affairs on Brickdam causing fire to erupt on two floors, but the blaze was quickly contained. Firefighters were forced to break in and douse flames.
The men had approached the ministry on foot and hurled the bombs in clear view of the security guards on duty.
The guards gave chase but failed to apprehend the men. Again, no one was found culpable for the attack.
On June 15, 2001 fire believed to have been electrical in origin completely destroyed the three-storey Ministry of Housing and Water building on Homestretch Avenue. The fire left millions of dollars in damage and dozens of persons jobless.
The fire started in the upper flat of the building which housed the Drainage and Irrigation Department. Other offices housed in that building which were destroyed were the Ministry of Labour’s Industrial Relations section; Empowerment – Recruitment and Replacement; Occupational Health and Safety; Drainage and Irrigation; the Board of Industrial Training; Hydraulics, among others.
Huge sections of two four-storey buildings of the Ministry of Education at Lot 68 Brickdam were gutted by fire on May 2, 1999. The origin of that fire remains unknown and the damage was estimated at millions of dollars.
The two top flats of both buildings were completely destroyed while the bottom flats suffered extensive damage from water and fire.
The fire threw a number of key educational programmes into disarray, among them the Secondary School Reform Programme (SSRP).
The ministry’s computer room, procurement office, the unit housing the SSRP Secretariat, offices and storage areas were destroyed in the fire.
And in February 1996 a mysterious fire destroyed the building which housed the Accounts Records of the Ministry of Public Works. An office in which the state auditors were doing the ministry’s audit for 1995 was also destroyed in the blaze.
The origin of the 1996 fire was unknown and the records and documents destroyed were said to have been a serious loss, hindering the state audit of the ministry.