Fire-fighters managed to contain a small blaze of unknown origin in a filing room of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Compliance Department yesterday afternoon.
The GRA department is located on the third floor of the Guyana Post Office Corporation’s building on Robb Street. According to reports, a defective light bulb may have caused some books in a filing room, in the eastern section of the third floor, to ignite.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene shortly after 5 pm a team of fire-fighters and police officers was present and activities were in full swing. The fire had already been put out and investigations were ongoing.
A small group of GRA employees was seen standing just in front the Robb Street entrance to the building which was sealed at the time.
Trevington Bowen, Deputy Head of GRA’s Internal Revenue Department, was among the employees gathered outside. According to him, the fire started at approximately 4.35 pm.
“I can’t say much about it because I don’t work in that section of the building… about 4.35 we were asked to evacuate the building,” Bowen said.
According to a police source, investigations have indicated the fire did not start as a result of a defective light bulb. However, that source was unable to say what might have caused the fire.
Further, that source said that sometime between 4.30 pm and 4.40 pm GRA staff saw smoke coming from that part of the building and an alarm was raised.
The fire service responded promptly and in a matter of minutes the blaze was doused. Damage was contained to the filing room.
