Cay Hill: --- Officials of the fire department said they suspected arson maybe involved in the fire at the Bakkers Recycling on Monday. At a press conference on Tuesday Head of the Fire Department Winston Solomon told reporters that the police are now busy conducting an official investigation to see who are responsible for the suspected arson. Asked what made them think that the fire was set on purpose Solomon said that no one was at the scrap yard at the time when the fire broke out and most importantly the property is fenced in.Solomon further indicated that there was a tank containing diesel at the location which caused the explosion at the site. He admitted that the fire department arrived on the scene a bit late but said the fire department had to make sure they had enough water to battle a fire of such magnitude. Fire Chief Frans Nieuwenhoven said they were forced to call in some of their firemen who were off duty to assist with the fire. Nieuwenhoven said at the site there were close to 2000 damaged cars which he found to be a lot.
He said when the firemen reached the scene the entire compound was on fire "basically the fire was from the right to left side which is already a lot of fire to put out." He said one should know that there is a lot of plastic in cars which is what contributed to the thick black smoke.
Nieuwenhoven said all of the fire trucks were on the scene to make sure there was enough water to battle the fire. The fire chief further explained that the fire department continued to pump water throughout the night to make sure the fire was completely out. "Actually we stopped the pumps at 8 am on Tuesday morning."
He said one of the reason, they were keeping people away from the scene was for their own safety due to flying debris and the explosions during the fire.
Solomon said one of the concerns of the fire department was the thick smoke emitting from the fire. He said they did all that was possible to drown the fire to stop the smoke, he also confirmed that the smoke was indeed toxic and that the excess gasoline and diesel that was on the site made matters worse for the firemen.
The management of the firemen expressed sincere gratitude to the 33 firemen who worked tirelessly to put the fire out. Solomon said they are very pleased with his personnel because they all worked hard on Monday afternoon. Many of them he said sustained minor injuries due to metal scrap. They also expressed gratitude to the police department and sector ROB who loaned them two excavators to remove the scrap vehicles.
