Firefighters able to contain huge blaze

MONDAY, AUGUST 8: Chief Fire Officer Vincent Hollinshid said 20 fire service vehicles and around 60 firefighters were mobilized to tackle today’s blaze at HWP — the biggest in Bermuda since the BELCO fire in 2006.

Police enforced a one-mile precautionary zone amid fears that the smoke contained asbestos and other toxic material.

Local people were warned to stay indoors and keep windows and doors closed.

Mr Hollinshid said the fire service could not measure the toxicity of smoke or if it contained asbestos – but that people downwind of the smoke were advised to stay indoors as a precaution.

Asked about the asbestos, Mr Hollinshid added: “That’s something I would have to defer to other relevant government departments — what I can say is we’re working with other government departments to see if asbestos was involved. If so, the Department of Environmental services will address that issue.”

He added: “It took approximately three-and-a-half hours to control the fire and contain it and I must say they did a fantastic job stopping the fire spreading to neighbouring properties.”

Mr Hollinshid said the “defensive” fire fighting techniques – called “surround and drown” — adopted by the team at the scene meant that the firm’s Skoda dealership, housed in a separate building on the site, the Standard Hardware building the BTC building near the site were all saved from serious damage.

Mr Hollinshid said firefighters initially entered the building to tackle the fire but were pulled out “because of the nature of the building’’, which contained highly flammable and explosive materials.

He added: “One of the things we did face as a difficulty was water supply and that will be looked at in our post-mortem.

“But once we were able to pump water from Mills Creek to St John’s Road, that supplied water for two vehicles.

“BELCO also offered their water supply and once that line was set up, we had plenty of water.

“Bermuda doesn’t have hydrant systems in the parishes or in other areas outside the city.

“It does take a little bit of time to set up — to the untutored eye it might look like we’re not doing our job, but nothing could be further from the truth. The firefighters did a fantastic job.”

Jonathan Brewin, president of HWP, said all 50 people in the affected building and a further 65 in the showroom and gas station on the other side of the road were evacuated safely after fire alarms went off just before 2pm.

He added: “Our evacuation procedure was swift and effective and everyone got out extremely quickly.”

Mr Brewin added that HWP staff were working with the fire service to establish the cause of the blaze.

He said: “It’s still under evaluation at the moment and we will be looking to the fire service to come forward with their conclusions.”

He added that he was unable to put a cost on the damage — to the building, new cars and customers’ cars in for repairs.

Mr Brewin said: “It’s under evaluation and we will be doing our best to come up with answers to that.”

He added that the firm had lost its phones and computer network and was working to put contingency plans in place — including a help line for customers and staff.

Minister for National Security Wayne Perinchief said: “I’m happy to say firefighters were able to contain the blaze within three hours. There were no injuries, although one fire officer succumbed to over-exertion, but he is okay.

“They were able to contain the fire to one building; the Dandy Town Sports Club is nearby, the Rubis gas station is across the road — it’s a highly-populated and travelled commercial area.”

Chief Inspector Na’imah Williams added that fire and police would be at the scene of the blaze all night and asked people to avoid the area in the meantime.

She added that any major incident like a fire would be treated as a crime scene in terms of security of the area.