An all-consuming fire at the Public Works Department heavy equipment repair yard sent sirens screaming and smoke billowing through Sub Base Sunday morning.
The innumerable sirens in the area prompted a call to Daryl George, assistant Fire director, who said he couldn’t talk when reached on his cell phone as the fire was raging.
But a passerby said, and an informed source confirmed Sunday afternoon, the fire must have started some time after 8 a.m. By 9 a.m. black smoke was seen pouring from the 60-year-old, corrugated metal building. The Sunday morning biker was able to take pictures before police officers on the scene shooed him off.
The witness said Public Works personnel were using a tow truck to pull equipment in the yard away from the burning building as firemen laid hoses across the street from where they were connected to hydrants at Crown Bay.
Several fire fighters were dressed in helmets and respirators, but it did not look like any were attempting to go into the red hot inferno, the witness told the Source.
“Buildings like that tend to collapse as the steel support structure weakens,” he observed. “It was definitely on fire” He said flames were shooting from the northern side and from the windows at the top of the top of the building.
Everything inside the building was lost, “Nothing was salvageable,” the source confirmed. But the equipment that had been moved away from the burning structure was saved.
By 4:30 p.m. the fire had been completely extinguished and crews from DPW and the Fire Department were mopping up and checking for remaining hot spots. The road between the scorched building and Crown Bay dock is expected to remain closed through the night and into Monday.
Firefighters from across the island responded to the call. The ladder truck and unlimited water supply from Crown Bay were instrumental in putting out the blaze, the informed source said.
