Fire-fightersput out blaze in the middle of the night |10 August 2018

The warehouse was consumed by fire on Wednesday afternoon

After containing and putting the Seychelles Public Transport Corporation warehouse fire under control on Wednesday afternoon, fire-fighters monitoring the situation on sight had to fight and put out small blazes which reignited every now and then all throughout the night until early yesterday morning.

Public relations officer for the Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency (SFRSA) Jones Madeleine stated that a team of fire-fighters was deployed to the scene overnight and they managed to put out the blaze at around 3am.

However, he added that another team was deployed by 8am on Thursday morning as the fire had reignited but they managed to extinguish it completely then.

He concluded that nobody from the fire department was injured although some fire-fighters had to be administered oxygen on site to aid breathing.

Asked what caused the fire, Mr Madeleine answered that an investigation is ongoing and that while they have some strong leads, they have not arrived at any conclusions yet.

A follow-up with the Seychelles Hospital confirmed that nobody had sought medical attention at the hospital in relation to the fire.

Nurse in charge at the casualty unit John Dubel stated that other than the two people who reported for treatment on Wednesday afternoon as they were suffering from shock, nobody else sought medical help.

Furthermore, paramedics attended to fire-fighters on the scene suffering from dehydration but nobody has reported to the casualty unit in the aftermath of the fire.

Meanwhile,various departments involved in combating the blaze on Wednesday afternoon are assessing their performance.

The Division for Risk and Disaster Management (DRDM), the agency that responds to incidents and emergencies and coordinates relief efforts,has expressed satisfaction with the performance of the various agencies that came together during the disaster.

Senior risk and disaster manager Cliff Allisop said the agency is satisfied with the way the emergency team including the Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency (SFRSA), the Seychelles Police Force and paramedics reacted on Wednesday.

“The fire was contained but while it was difficult to extinguish it due to the windy conditions and the sheer size of the flames, the priority was to stop it from escaping established boundaries, something that was achieved by the fire department,” he said.

He explained that DRDM helped the emergency services by providing additional masks for some of the firemen who are still on training and certain members of the police mobilised close to the scene to direct traffic. They also provided food and water.

He added that an evaluation of the agency’s efforts will be possible once all departments have conducted an audit of the event but noted that he is satisfied overall.