(Barbados Nation) One million dollars – and counting!

That’s the estimate which chairman and chief executive officer Edwin Thirlwell put on the damage done by a fire raging on Tuesday night at the headquarters of BICO, the big ice-cream maker.

The BICO chief said at least Bds$1 million in raw materials used in the manufacture of ice-cream went up in smoke in the fire at the Harbour Industrial Park, Bridgetown complex.

The Bds$1 million estimate excludes the cost of the extensive damage to the north-western section of the complex wrought by the inferno that started around 7:50 p.m. and lasted more than two hours.

Thirlwell, who rushed from home to the complex, said as far as he knew it was the first fire to hit the company since its opening on Bay Street in 1901.