Barbados Archives Department Fire Caused by Lightning Strike, Investigation Underway

A lightning strike is initially thought to have caused the fire at the Archives Department, says the Barbados Fire Service, and Government will also be conducting an investigation.

Addressing the media at the Lazaretto, Black Rock, St Michael location after the blaze was brought under the control early this morning, Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams said the Archives was designated as one of the country’s priority areas and this was a call they have always dreaded.

“We are obviously going to have a full investigation to find out what happened and have a full report on it, at which point we will make that report public. We don’t intend to hide anything from this, but it is a tragedy,” Abrahams said.

“From our initial reports, the fire was caused from a lightning strike which ignited the roof of the structure,” said Divisional Officer with the Barbados Fire Service, Marlon Small, “and due to the condition of the records there – there are very old records – rapid fire spread throughout the structure.

”What was of significance, we were able to salvage some of the records here in Block D while we were conducting fire suppression efforts.”

Earlier, Dr Shantal Munro-Knight, the Minister with responsibility for Culture broke down in tears and could not finish her interview after describing it as an emotional morning. She rushed to the scene from the gym.

“We lost Block D, which housed pretty historical documents here at the Archives. We are still making an assessment of the full damage. We were able to retrieve some records and the team is already on site trying to salvage those records, but this is still a major blow for us,” she said.

Munro-Knight was in the process of pointing out Barbados’ push towards an Archives economy when she broke down in tears.

Last months, hundreds of people from Liberia with Barbadian roots made an emotional return to the island and spent hours combing the Archives. Some were successful in tracing their ancestors and many promised to return to continue research.

Chief Archivist Ingrid Thompson said her team was already on location trying to salvage the records and hoped it was the first and last time she experienced something like this.

Meanwhile, Abrahams said he was satisfied with the response from the Fire Service which limited the damage to one building.

Small said the call came in at 11:59 p.m. and they responded with two appliances, but given the nature of the blaze, that was upgraded to one combined ladder platform, one water tanker and and two more appliances. Twenty-three officers responded, while Chief Fire Officer Errol Maynard and Deputy Chief Henderson Patrick, were also on site. (SAT)