(Jamaica Observer) Acrid grey smoke still spewed from the smouldering ruins of the massive warehouse at Omni Industries Limited and Flexpak compound in Twickenham Park, St Catherine way past midday on Saturday after a ferocious fire ravaged it in the pre-dawn hours.
Jagged, scorched concrete walls jutted skywards from the now roofless building, the steel girders that once held it up reduced to a twisted mass of metal resting on the flooded floors like the skeleton of a giant, gutted beast. The metal had melted as the highly flammable plastics and other chemicals ignited and created extremely high temperatures inside.
Executives said the damage was an estimated J$500 million, which, despite full insurance coverage, still means an uncertain future for the companies — formed out of the remnants of the Finsac engineered divestment of what was once Thermoplastics Jamaica Limited — the largest plastics manufacturers in the Caribbean. Two hundred jobs are also at risk.
There is still no indication as to how the fire started or where, but it took seven fire units to control the blaze which executives at the plastics manufacturing company said started around 3:00 am.
An employee on the night shift saw smoke and sounded an alarm.
No one was injured.
“This is the first we are experiencing anything like this,” said an obviously fatigued General Manager Noel Alcott.