The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Businesses in the Airport Industrial Park (AIP) were left scrambling to protect their premises, equipment and inventory yesterday, after they were threatened by a massive bush fire sparked on Monday.

One AIP tenant told Tribune Business: “This fire was burning since Monday. We sent about eight trucks filled with water, 2,000 gallons per truck, to help try and control the situation.

“I’m not sure how far they got with the trucks because there’s only so far they can go. We pretty much secured the areas where certain businesses were on our side. It’s been smoky around here all day.”

The fire, according to one source at the AIP Park, has burnt hundreds of acres stretching from Gambier Village west towards and up to the Park.

“One business has had equipment destroyed by the fire and lost product stored on their land. Other businesses have been forced to evacuate their premises while attempting to remove as much equipment and inventory as they could,” the source said.

“AIP security and numerous businesses within the AIP development have been calling the Fire Department from 8am in the morning. The fire department provided no equipment to fight the fire until 3:45pm, only after irate calls were made by numerous businesses in the community in jeopardy of losing their buildings.

“Businesses in the AIP community were left to do what they could with water trucks, cement mixers and water pumps, while the Fire Department neither monitored the situation nor did anything about it until it was too late.”

The source added that AIP-based businesses had been left wondering why they paid taxes to the Government when its emergency services did not respond in a timely manner.

Fire Department chief, Walter Evans, told Tribune Business that it was doing all it could to combat the blaze, having deployed two fire trucks to the area.

“This fire was burning since Monday. I don’t have a precise time. There’s a lot of smoke in that area,” he said.

“In some parts of Tropical Gardens the fire was burning near some residences, but it has been extinguished. Some areas are smouldering near Tropical Gardens, on the western side of Tropical, on the southern portion of Gambier and on the eastern side of the industrial park.

“The fire is burning just south-west of the airport. It’s a very large area. The fire is in a contained area. We are protecting the properties in that area because there are a whole lot of properties in that general vicinity from the Airport Industrial Park,” he added.

“We are also looking at the homes in the Tropical Gardens and Gambier area. Those are the challenges, those are the three areas we have to monitor. We have two fire trucks out there.”

Robin Campbell, a customer service representative at 9-5 Import Export, told Tribune Business when contacted yesterday afternoon: “It looks like the fire may finally be out. When we called to report it they said they knew and were sending another truck. We’re struggling with the smoke.”