Owner optimistic despite fire setback at LynMax Bakery
Published:Thursday | December 29, 2022 | 1:25 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
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Clarence Maxwell, owner of LynMax Bakery, regrets not following a hunch to shut down operations this week after a sold-out Christmas break. Instead, he now has to contend with millions in damage after a devastating inferno at the facility on...
Clarence Maxwell, owner of LynMax Bakery, regrets not following a hunch to shut down operations this week after a sold-out Christmas break. Instead, he now has to contend with millions in damage after a devastating inferno at the facility on Wednesday.
The businessman was called to the 20 Slipe Road, Kingston, location just before 10 a.m. yesterday after a fire, which reportedly started in one of the main ovens, began gutting a section of the establishment.
Standing on the lower floor while firefighters conducted cooling-down operations, Maxwell spoke to investigators and tried to console staff who were evidently concerned about the days ahead.
“A so it go (unfortunate), right after the holiday,” the businessman told The Gleaner. “Me not even come a work. Mi just send them to come open, and a this news here reach me.”
While noting that it was still early, Maxwell said he was not anticipating a “big” estimate in terms of losses.
“One of the big oven cost about $5 million, but like how mine is second-hand, I am looking at about $2 million in damage. No baked product was in there. We sell out from Saturday,” he said.
The setback will be short-lived, according to the businessman of 20-plus years, as he is ready to bounce back into operation.
Maxwell intends to clean the building and rely on a back-up oven to get things going in time for the new year.
“They mixed out some stuff (flour) to work, and we have another oven, so we going use that one in the interim. I’m not saddened. It’s just a part of life,” he added.
The businessman told The Gleaner that this was the second fire at the location, and although both could have been avoided, the most recent one arose from a man-made error.
“I told them whenever they use the oven upstairs, [they should disconnect after use] because there is a connection from the oven to the burner that burn the oven so that the gas oil don’t run, but them leave it on, and it was there for the whole weekend a run, so it go under the oven, and they went this morning and light the oven and leave it and don’t look until it blaze up. But the fire was confined to inside the oven,” Maxwell said
He said the police and firefighters from the York Park Fire Station responded quickly.
Two units fought the blaze, and the fire investigators will carry out a probe into the cause of the fire.
There were no reports of injury. However, the workers were shaken up and watched in dismay as the emergency crew conducted their operations.
A worker covered in flour said they had prepared 13 bags of flour to commence baking Wednesday.
“Work done for the day and everything (dough) have to throw away. We deh ya from 7:30 a.m. Mi nuh know when we a go start up again. The year done, and a this reach we,” said the concerned staff member.
Other members of staff were questioning each other aloud, trying to determine who left the oven connection on over the weekend.
“A you bake the coco bread Saturday? ‘Cause the gas wasn’t disconnected,” a worker quizzed.
“I can’t recall,” his colleague responded, to laughter from other workers.