And while his death continues to be investigated, there were no injuries after an electrical fire broke out this morning at Heritage Bank on Princess Margaret Drive. It could have been disastrous, but the employees quickly discovered it and put their fire drill knowledge to use. The damage was minimal and today we spoke with the managing director, Stephen Duncan, about what happened:
This morning the employees at the Heritage Bank on Princess Margaret Drive went into work as usual, but before they could finish their morning coffee, a fire erupted at a water cooler in their lunchroom.
Stephen Duncan - Managing Director, Heritage Bank
"Well, this morning and come into work somewhere between, I would say, around 7:30, between 7:30 and 8. Members of staff started to notice smoke coming from the building, from the fourth floor of the building, really. The prompt action, they reacted and set off the alarm, call the fire brigade, etc., who responded very quickly, I must say. I have heard all the talk on news recently about... but I must confess, respond very quickly and in fact were able to put out the fire so that we kept the damage to a minimum. The water cooler is completely destroyed. It's burnt and an air conditioning unit that sits, that was located on the wall above the water cooler. So it looks like as the water cooler burned, the flames caused the or maybe the electrical through the electrical way into the air conditioning unit. So that was destroyed as well. And where the water cooler was on the floor is charred, but quite honestly, that is it."
But the scent of smoke has filled the entire building, rendering it unable to open for business. The employees have been relocated for today - but none of them has any injuries. And as Duncan pointed out, things could have been a lot worse.
Stephen Duncan
"No one was in a room at the time. I mean, people were just coming into the office. It was prior to 8:00. But at the same time, I think we really do need to give thanks that it happened at that time of the day when people were already at the office to have seen it and acted on it quickly. Had that happen anywhere around midnight, 1:00, 2:00, the whole building would have probably been engulfed before it was noticed at that time of the night."
And Duncan feels that the fire may have been caused by a power outage that was brought on by the storm yesterday. However, there is still come investigation to be done to confirm that.
Duncan says that they have not received the value of the damages from the insurance company as yet.
