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Subject: Fire Destroys Ministry of Tourism and other Bay St. Buildings
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 18:35:53 EDT

In a message dated 9/6/2001 11:33:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:

<<
Nassau Guardian reports...

Museum, shipping company losses substantial

Released Wednesday, September 5, 2001 at 09:09 am EST by Jimenita Swain



By JIMENITA SWAIN

Guardian Staff Reporter


The blazing fire Tuesday afternoon on Bay Street caused havoc and confusion
from the Ministry of Tourism building to Navy Lyon Road.
The magnitude of destruction forced an alliance between the Royal Bahamas
Police Force and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and also new police recruits
in training who were being utilized to combat the raging inferno.
To quench the thirst in the parched throats of fire-fighters, bell-boys from
the near-by British Colonial Hilton Hotel transported water back and forth on
trolleys.
One of the buildings extensively damaged was the long standing Vendue House
that existed from the period of slavery, where slaves were auctioned.
Grace Turner, a curator at Pompey Museum said that, "From what we could tell
outside, the roof is extensively damaged." She added that, "Police officers,
firemen and defence force officers brought artifacts out first.

"The David Ferguson art collection, a Lucayan canoe under conservation and
several archaeological artifacts found from different sites around the
Bahamas," was among salvaged works, she said. Turner estimated that about 90
percent of the collection that was in the museum had been saved.

Additionally on the north side of the museum there was extensive damage and
"some of the cases which were downstairs, have come out with burnt debris on
them. So it seems, as if the floor between the two-storey unit was already
being damaged but we don't know the extent of the damage because we were not
allowed in the building," she said.

An assessment of the damage could not be conducted, as an inventory of the
collection had not been carried out.

"We expect some damage because some collections have been wet; thank God
they have not been burnt. The only damage on the paintings is water damage;
for most of them it does not look like irreparable damage so we are
grateful," she said.

Turner noted that the police had everything under control on the streets at
all times. She affirmed that the fire was fueled by winds blowing in a
westerly direction and the fact that water pressure could not be maintained
did not help the situation.

In the flurry of excitement scores of Bahamians rushed to the streets in
front of McDonalds to get a glimpse of a police officer laying in the street
following an accident. The officer was injured, when his motorcycle collided
with a black 1988 Ford Ranger truck, registered to a Darren Woods. A
by-stander at the scene said that, "The police ran into the truck and he slid
about 20-feet from his motorbike. He was going with full speed about 50- 70
mph."

Another eyewitness said that, "The man in the black truck was attempting to
turn in McDonald's yard but was unable to avoid hitting the officer."

Despite the look of the wreckage, the officer sustained only a broken leg.

Shernette McIver Mackey, a tour manager and ship agent at United Shipping
Company, said, "Everything is lost." She explained that the company was the
ship agents for Royal Caribbean Cruises and other cruise ships and barges.
She added that the cruise ship Majesty of the Seas, that was docked in the
harbour was one of their vessels. "All the files and the records for the
ships were damaged," Mackey said. She explained that the company deals with
cruise ship passengers and employees.

She estimated the extent of damage to documents to be millions of dollars.
Mackey expressed the importance of lost documents. For instance, if a crew
member went to the doctor, United Shipping would pay the bill and be
reimbursed by the cruise company. Unfortunately all records and duplicate
records were lost in the fire.

"After the fire we will have to notify the Port Authority of what is lost,"
Mackey confirmed.

Many Bahamians on the scene described the damage as "a grand loss that will
affect the entire Bahamas."

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