The August 8 fire on Clarke Street, Vieux Fort has been officially declared accidental but it was altogether avoidable. Despite the recommendation that a fire extinguisher be made available in the building, it wasn’t. Firefighter Owen Cazabon of the Fire Prevention and Investigation Unit said the fire started from an electrical wall-mounted fan.
“The building where the fire occurred has been inspected by the fire department in the past,” he told the STAR, and recommendations were made for firefighting equipment to be installed there.” The SLFS investigators discovered “the fire started while the building was occupied, meaning the occupants saw the fire from its incipient stages and could have used an extinguisher to prevent the fire from developing as it did. However, with no firefighting equipment on hand, little could be done. Three business houses were in consequence completely destroyed.”
