Cause of fire still unknown

A day after fire engulfed a 300,000-gallon rum tank at the Mount Gay Distilleries in St Lucy, the company said it was carrying out its investigations to determine the cause of the fire, while giving assurance that work was ongoing at the plant.

In a statement this afternoon the company’s managing director Raphaël Grisoni heaped praises on the Barbados Fire Service for its response to, and control of the fire at the plant on Wednesday, and to staff on site for their handling of the situation.

The fire, which started in a tank containing approximately 150,000 litres of non-aged rum, resulted in no damage to the rest of the distillery, which is up and running, said Grisoni.

“The fire started in the early afternoon and the fire service responded quickly with four tenders, two special vehicles and 30 officers under the command of Deputy Chief Fire Officer Henderson Patrick, who used water and foam to control and contain the conflagration,” said Grisoni.

He did not give an estimate of the damage caused by the fire, which officials said started around 2 p.m. and was under control by 5 p.m.

“We take this opportunity to publicly give kudos to and thank the personnel for the great job done and to our staff for their management of the situation, including proper evacuation and the monitoring and sharing of information,” he said, while adding that the company “is still carrying out investigations to determine what caused the fire”.

The deputy fire chief had indicated that it would take some time to gather all the information to determine the cause of the fire.