During the early morning hours on Thursday, police on routine patrol at the Exuma airport reported that smoke was coming from the section of the airport that housed Customs and Immigration services and Nassau Flight Services.
That portion of the airport was also utilized for border patrol processing of international passengers.
Fire and Civil Aviation officials were immediately dispatched and tried to contain the blaze but unfortunately the fire had already engulfed the building and subsequently destroyed that section of the airport.
“Around 3 am (on Thursday) I got a call from the director of the Civil Aviation Department relaying information that the international terminal of the Moss Town International airport was engulfed in flames,” Minister Hanna-Martin said.
She said after hearing the news, she along with other government officials traveled to Exuma to assess the damage of the airport.
After arriving at the smoking airport, Minister Hanna-Martin said that she was able to confirm that that portion would no longer be useable.
The minister added that immediately afterwards measures were put in place so that international travel would not be disrupted.
“In the interim immediate steps have been taken to ensure that that the first international flight that came in noon on Thursday would have experienced no delay or disruptions and so temporary measures were put in place to ensure that Customs and Immigration personnel would be in (place). In addition a short-term temporary measure was agreed and will be implemented in a few days,” Minister Hanna-Martin said.
Those temporary measures included setting up awnings for the processing of passengers through Customs and Immigration and also for the movement of luggage.
The Minister noted that signs had also been erected to divert passengers to the temporary facilities and also alerting them as to what took place.
She indicated that immediately following the press conference held at her office located in the Pilot House building on Thursday, she was scheduled to meet with the chief architect at the Ministry of Works to consider the options that are available to her ministry.
Minister Hanna-Martin also indicated that two architects were scheduled to travel to Exuma on Friday in order to advise the ministry on the way forward in restoring the damage airport.
“They are going to be advising us on the various options that we can pursue to immediately address the issue. At the same time by carefully utilizing the resources I would like to say that the domestic section of the airport that is also used for international screening is in order, security is no way compromised and international travel to Exuma has not been impacted in terms of security issues from the fire,” Minister Hanna-Martin said.
According to the Minister the Royal Bahamas Police Force traveled to Exuma at 1pm on Thursday to investigate and determine the cause of the fire.
Initially the cause of the fire was suspected to be arson but fire officials in Exuma said that they suspect that an electrical shortage could be the cause of the blaze.
“I am not able to say definitively what was the cause of the fire but I would suspect that if arson is not the cause of the fire an electrical shortage may have contributed to the fire,” said Bernard Swann officer in charge of crash fire rescue services at the Exuma International Airport.
He added that initially when the fire team arrived on the scene at 2:45 am on Thursday their initial concern was for the domestic terminal and an American eagle aircraft that was parked in close proximity to the building that was on fire.
“We knew almost immediately that we would not have been able to save the building and therefore our challenge was the containment and protecting the other properties that were in close proximity to the airport,” Mr. Swann explained.
Authorities reported that there were no injuries resulting from the fire.
Minister Hanna- Martin indicated that Exuma is considered the third busiest airport in The Bahamas.
She told reporters that she was informed by officials from the Four Seasons Resort that some 700 passengers are expected to check in and out of the hotel over the weekend.
She said that the hotel is currently experiencing full capacity.
The portion of the airport destroyed in the fire was renovated two years ago to accommodate the influx of tourists traveling to the island due to the opening of the Four Seasons Resort.
Minister Hanna-Martin explained that the modular portion was only a temporary facility that the government had built but she explained that it was never the government’s intention to have that portion as a permanent fixture.
She said the transport ministry’s intention is now to build a state of the art structure as soon as possible to replace the damage building so that processing international passengers will return to a state of normalcy.
By: Bianca Symonette, The Bahama Journal
