Items destroyed in fire at Brickdam Police Station total $104.3 million

Some seven months after a fire ripped through the Brickdam Police Station in Georgetown, the government has revealed that the cost for items destroyed during the blaze amount to some $104.3 million.

This total does not include the building itself and vehicles that were torched during the blaze but includes $4.5 million for a minibus.

The figure was provided to the National Assembly on Tuesday by Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn in response to a question asked by shadow Home Affairs Minister Geeta Chandan-Edmond.

On October 2, 2021, over 80 per cent of the century-old buildings were destroyed during a massive fire.

Twenty-six-year-old Clarence Greene called ‘Molly’, an inmate who was at the station on the day the fire broke out, was remanded to prison for the arson.

Now, Benn has revealed the extent to which the Guyana Police Force and the state suffered losses.

Some of the items included in the total are $3.2 million in desks, $6.8 million in office chairs, $2.1 million in mattresses, $5 million in laptops, $10.7 million in computers, $2.1 million in printers, $7.2 million in photocopying machines and $2.9 million in body cameras.

Additionally, the Police Force lost $2.4 million in digital recorders, $9.6 million in automatic transfer switches, over $4 million in CCTV and video surveillance systems, another $4.8 million in radio handheld sets, $4 million in network switches, and $2.5 million in routers.

In her question, the Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) had asked for the cost of destroyed vehicles and for the extent to which documents and exhibits were ruined but those replies were not forthcoming.

Several privately-owned vehicles and items belonging to ranks were also destroyed but not listed in this total provided to the House on Tuesday.

Already, the government has opened bids for the construction of an 11-storey building to replace the destroyed property.

A few private citizens and small businesses have already donated resources to help rebuild the police station.

The fire had severely affected the operations of the Brickdam Police Station and a number of services were moved to St Stanislaus College for a brief period. The majority of the operations have now been moved back to the station compound.