While the cause of the fire which gutted a section of the Police Headquarters building at Eve Leary on Saturday is yet to be determined, efforts were being made up to yesterday to resume operations at the nearby Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the soonest.
Contacted for an update on the investigation yesterday, Fire Chief Kalamadeen Edoo told Stabroek News that the investigation is expected to be completed today.
When Stabroek News revisited the scene yesterday afternoon, DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack was engaging staff members on getting all the files which were disarranged in the fire back in order.
Communications Officer of the Chambers of the DPP, Liz Rahaman told Stabroek News that the DPP has taken a “conscious” decision to reconstruct as fast as is “humanly” possible.
“….. The functions of these chambers are vital to the judicial system and so DPP has taken a conscious decision, to reconstruct as fast as it is humanly possible because it’s thousands and thousands of documents and files,” Rahaman said.
She was unable to say how long this is likely to take. No files were lost in the fire.
Rahaman expressed gratitude to members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for their swift efforts in saving the documents. “We are grateful for members of the Guyana Police Force for their extensive and full cooperation in coming….to save the law books. Those are what matters most, the law books,” she said.
The fire started around 1.50 pm on Saturday and a quick response by the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) prevented the blaze from spreading to the Chambers of the DPP, situated in an adjoining building.
The police Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), the force construction department and a barracks section which was housed in the building were destroyed.
At the scene, Edoo had explained that the GFS dispatched five fire tenders to the scene.
Upon arrival, he said, they found the entire building in flames. “…We were able to contain the fire from spreading to the eastern half of the other building,” Edoo said.
The fire was brought under control about two hours later. By that time, all of the files, the majority of which are paper-based, were saved from both the OPR and DPP offices.
As firefighters were battling to put out the blaze, police officers, including a number of senior ranks and staff members of the OPR and DPP’s Chambers, rushed into the building to retrieve the files.
While the DPP’s office was not affected by the blaze, it suffered from water damage during the firefighting efforts.
Ali-Hack had told reporters that the fire has renewed her calls for a move away from a paper-based system. “It’s something I have been asking for, for years now—to digitise the system. So this shows wisdom in having a digitised system,” she said.
Just last month, a fire destroyed more than 80% of the Brickdam Police Station. A GFS investigation later confirmed that the fire was an act of arson and a suspect has since been charged.
