The Social Security Board headquarters had a fire this morning that caused the loss of $80,000 worth of equipment.
At 11:30 this morning there was a fire in the standby generator room after what appears to be an accident. Our 7NEWS team was in Belmopan and tracked the blaze from beginning to end complete with a few dramatic moments. Here's the story.
Alfonso Noble Reporting, [from Belmopan]
We were first on the scene as smoke puffed out of the Social Security's generator room at around 11 this morning. Within a few seconds diesel from the generator's tank began to leak into the building causing the generator to become engulfed in flames. There were a few tense moments as firemen concentrated their water on the diesel tank while policemen cleared the perimeter to ensure that no one got hurt if the tank exploded.
The scene continued like this until special patrol unit officer Aaron Gamboa secured a small ladder and fearlessly closed off the tank's main valve allowing for the fire to be extinguished. Benjamin Salam says he was inside the building doing some welding on 15 leaks on the galvanized pipes leading from the fuel tank to the generator when fire broke.
Benjamin Salam, Witness
[Translation from Spanish] "The Gentrac Company called us in because they had some connections of pipes that were leaking. They explained to us what we were to do. When we began to work one of the fuel pipes became loose and began to spread diesel where we were. I stopped welding and when I did this the spark fell on the diesel and that's what caused the fire. It came towards us and we were trapped and unable to out the fire."
"We did not know what the machines are for. We simply came to weld the leaks."
The generator was worth $80,000. Social Security General Manager Narda Garcia told us that it was put in place to allow for the system to always be up in case of power outage. It was installed in August of last year and was still under warranty from Gentrac the company that sold the equipment to the SSB. It along with the building was also insured.
No one was injured and investigations by the police and the fire department are underway to determine exactly what caused the fire.