The police have blamed an electrical fault as the cause of the Long Street fire which consumed a retail store’s stock and blanketed two city blocks in thick grey-white smoke yesterday. While the proprietors of Home Ideal Store have been left to clean up the remains, the blaze did not destroy the building, and was prevented from spreading to neighbouring businesses.
According to Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Joel Lewis, the call which the Antigua & Barbuda Fire Service responded to came from an employee at approximately 9:58 am on Friday.
“An employee opened the store around 9 o’clock this [yesterday] morning and at 9:30 she smelled something like smoke or something burning. She locked off the main switch. When they put it back on they saw smoke and a few flashes of light coming from it.
“They eventually tried to shut it off again, but by that time it had already ignited some of the clothes. They tried to out [the fire]. When they could not they had to leave,” ACP Lewis said.
The building is located on Long Street between Market Street and Corn Alley “around two buildings from the John F Shoul Store”. According to the officer, tenders from St John’s Fire Station “took about three minutes to get to the scene” adding that “in about 30 minutes it was under control”.
The officer said the greatest challenge was “getting past the clothing which had fallen and piled up” on the ground. He assured that no one was injured in the blaze which generated enough smoke and confusion to briefly slow traffic to a crawl on nearing areas of Market Street and Corn Alley.