Items destroyed in the Brickdam Police Station Fire last year amounted to some $104.3m, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn informed the National Assembly yesterday.
The disclosure of the amount was made in written response to a question posed by Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Geeta Chandan-Edmond.
She had asked the minister to provide a detailed breakdown of all equipment, vehicles, documents, and exhibits, completely destroyed in the October 2, 2021 blaze. In his response, Benn said a total of 79 different items were destroyed in the fire. He explained that the station lost $2.4m in digital recorders, $9.6m in automatic transfer switches, over $4m in CCTV and video surveillance systems, another $4.8m in radio handheld sets, $4m in network switches, $2.5m in routers, and $2.9m in body cameras. In terms of office equipment, $3.2m in desks, $6.8m in office chairs, $2.1m in mattresses, $5m in laptops, $10.7m in computers, $2.1m in printers, and $7.2m in photocopying machines were destroyed. A minibus valued at $4.5m was also recorded as destroyed but there was no indication as to whether it was owned by the station or was private property.
In the second part of her question Chandan- Edmond wanted to know what steps have been taken since to reconstruct documents and replace destroyed and damaged vehicles. No response was given to that question.
The dollar amount of the losses presented to the National Assembly does not capture the value of the building or privately owned items of ranks, officers, and employees destroyed in the fire.
More than 80 per cent of the Brickdam Police Station was destroyed in a fire in October last year. The police had stated that a prisoner, Clarence Greene, who was in the lock-ups at the time of the fire, confessed to starting it out of frustration. He was charged with arson and remanded to prison.
At the Region 4A annual thanksgiving and awards ceremony in December, Benn had announced that a modern 11-storey building would be constructed to house the new police station.
A sum of $400 million has been allocated under the 2022 national budget for the construction of a new multi-storey Brickdam Police Station. Benn had said that a number of designs for the steel structure were being explored.
“…This is the first tranche in relation to that investment. We already have three concept drawings and we are looking at the foundation and the footprint issues in relation to the building and then the internal detailing as to what we would have in consultation with the police for a new modern Brickdam Police Station, which will take us way into the next 30 or 40 years or more.”
“The foundation works will have to be piled… it will be a steel structure, there will be a more open concept, the reticulation and those issues will have to be different and modern and also the fire protection,” Benn added
In February of this year, bids were invited for the construction of a modern eight-storey Brickdam Police Station and according to the minister, the aforementioned sum is just the first tranche for the project.
