Investigator: Stricter fire-prevention measures needed for Old Shoe Market

WESTERN BUREAU:

District Officer O’Neil Kerr, the Jamaica Fire Brigade’s (JFB) fire investigator for St James, wants stricter fire-safety measures to be put in place at the Old Shoe Market in downtown Montego Bay, which has experienced three fires resulting in significant damage over the past year.

Kerr made the call while addressing last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), where he presented the JFB’s reports indicating that illegal electrical connections at the market’s shops contributed to at least two of the three fire incidents between October 2023 and October 2024.

“The first fire occurred on Sunday, October 15, 2023, and 54 of the shops on the northeastern end of the Old Shoe Market were destroyed by the fire while the remaining 96 shops were saved. There were several contributing factors that resulted in the number of shops being affected by the fire, one being the building construction and another being the schematic design or layout of the premises,” Kerr explained.

“The second fire occurred this year, Wednesday, September 4, 2024, and in this situation, three shops on the western end of the property were affected. The investigation unravelled startling data that suggested unmetred, illegal, and unregulated usage of electricity and electrical appliances, and the electrical load within the shop was enormous. During the third fire, 10 days later, on Saturday, September 14, 2024, on that same end of the Shoe Market, only one shop was affected, and the indicators suggest the same issue,” Kerr continued.

“One of our recommendations is to ensure that the proper regulation and distribution of electricity to the shops are enforced and second is to see to the implementation and installation of initiation devices, namely smoke detectors, in the shops.”

Previous fires

The Old Shoe Market, located near the intersection of St James Street and Creek Street in Montego Bay, was previously gutted by fire in June 2008, resulting in the destruction of 25 shops and approximately $50 million in damage. Seven years later, on July 23, 2015, thirty shops were destroyed in another fire shortly after 3 a.m., reportedly caused by an overturned candle in a shop whose operator had fallen asleep.

Notably, days after the October 15, 2023, fire, the St James police urged shop owners at the Old Shoe Market to cooperate with investigators while warning that the circumstances under which the fire had occurred would likely be repeated otherwise. At that time, it was reported that many of the affected shop owners knew about the circumstances that led to the fire but were remaining silent.

Kerr also told Thursday’s meeting that the construction layout of buildings in Montego Bay should be reviewed in order to avoid negatively impacting the flow of traffic, including the movements of JFB vehicles, in the event of a fire.

“We need to design an effective schematic of buildings to improve the means of egress and ingress [exit and entrance]. This is critical to our fire ground operations because if the space is too tight for the ease of traffic and for firefighters to effectively do our jobs, and even for the persons that are commuting in that space on a day-to-day basis, we need to look into how we design these public spaces,” said Kerr.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com