Latest update April 9th, 2025 12:59 AM
Almost a year later…Medex building fire started in AC Unit – Fire Chief
After almost a year of waiting, the cause of the fire which completely destroyed the Medex Building at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara on March 18, last, has finally been revealed.
What was left of the Medex building in Liliendaal.
The fire, according to Fire Chief, Marlon Gentle, started in an Air Conditioning (AC) Unit at the facility, before spreading to the entire building.
The Medex building once housed several administrative offices under different departments within the Ministry of Health, including the National Food Policy Unit, Veterinary Public Health, Division of Health Sciences Education and that of the Government Parliamentarian and Chairperson of the Women and Gender Equality Commission, Indra Chandarpal.
A few months after the fire, Health Minister, Bheri Ramsaran told the media that the investigation into the fire was still ongoing. He had promised to release the report once it was out, but had never done so.
Kaieteur News was told that 49 affected workers were relocated to different locations within the Ministry of Health.
The Minister had noted that his Ministry prepared a cost plan for the reconstruction of the building and has already submitted it to the Office of the President and the Ministry of Finance. However, months have passed and no work has been done on the building.
The minister could not be reached yesterday for a comment.
The fire service had indicated that a little after 03:00 hrs on March 18, 2014, it received a call that a blaze had started at the Medex Building, and three tenders responded from Central Georgetown, Alberttown and Campbellville.
By the time fire fighters got there, the blaze had already spread throughout the middle flat. A sleeping security guard was alerted and saved, but everything else was destroyed.
A resident, Donna Fraser, had told this publication that the fire appeared to have started in the upper flat of the building.
She noted that her household was awakened by a telephone call from a neighbour, who informed her that the annex was on fire.
“I was actually sleeping, so I didn’t know wha’ did going on outside, but then my next door neighbour called me to say that the Medex building on fire. So is when I rush out then I see fire blazing at the top of the building on the eastern side,” Fraser recalled.
“By the time I hurry and rush out, people from the back village did already gather in front and the fire tenders and so was already there,” the woman added.
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