Garbage fire causes panic at SOL HQ

Fire fighters tackling the heavy smoke while staffers from Prittipaul Singh Investments look on

Employees of Sol Guyana Inc was on Monday forced to vacate their head office located at Agricola, Georgetown, after a fire was lit behind the compound, posing a threat to the fuel products stored there.

The fire was noticed at about 11:00h on Monday. While it is unclear, who started the fire and how it was started, Guyana Times was told that the neighbouring company reportedly dumps several unwanted items such as old crates on the open land, located behind the gas company.

When this newspaper arrived at the scene, the Guyana Fire Service was already there and was working assiduously to put out the flames. Even though the fire was closer to the Prittipaul Singh Investments seafood exporting company, the fire fighters had to use the Sol compound to access the fire. The firefighters managed to extinguish the fire speedily.

Speaking with Guyana Times Divisional Officer of the Guyana Fire Service Compton Sparman explained that initial information suggested that someone from a nearby company deliberately lit the fire, which began to spread because of the high weeds surrounding the garbage pile.

General Manager of SoL Orlando Boxil told reporters that he is not sure how the fire started.

“This morning we heard the fire alarm and when I came out I saw a lot of smoke building up. It was kind of difficult at that time to see where the smoke is coming from. We activated our security and we called the relevant authorities – the Police and the Fire Service – and they responded,” Boxill said.

He added that the company will do a ‘Root Cause Analysis’ to examine what occurred following which recommendations will be made to avoid a recurrence.

The Company’s general manager praised the fire service for its diligent work in preventing a disaster, saying that they were “admirable”.

“We are a petroleum company and have a lot of barrels of flammable liquids here and we activated our procedures and made sure that area where the tanks are were cool. Thankfully nothing has happened but it is a lesson for us that we need to be ever so vigilant; we need to make sure our surroundings, and the area outside of our surroundings are safe,” Boxill said.

Meanwhile, Guyana Times was told that the management of SoL previously wrote its neighbouring seafood company on their disposal practices and the danger it can have on the fuel products stored in the compound.