Cause of fire revealed despite PM being criticised over bulldozer

go through Time Domain Network Wireline staff

December 30, 2016 at 2:01 PM

Prime Minister Skerrit, accompanied by Josiah Benoit, arrived at the scene of the fire.

Dominican Silver Lake (TDN)

Dominican fire officials quickly announced that the investigation into the Dominican Republic’s most destructive house fire has been concluded.

According to Deputy Fire Chief Farley Riviere, the cause of the fire was “a short in an electrical outlet… We started the investigation very quickly because the point of origin of the fire had already been reported… and we closed the investigation very quickly because we found the point of origin of the fire, and it showed exactly where the fire started, and the evidence that it could have occurred there,” he revealed. This surprising conclusion comes after Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit was heavily criticized for ordering the burnt remains of the building to be bulldozed less than 12 hours after the fire started. The fire started around 10 a.m. and destroyed two apartments containing 18 families, leaving more than 60 people homeless. The morning after the fire, Skerrit ordered the building to be bulldozed even though smoke was still rising from the embers, prompting many observers to accuse him of interfering with the investigation of what could have been a crime scene.

The fire officials’ statements appeared to contradict those of police spokesman Pelham Jono-Baptiste, who claimed later in the afternoon after the fire that the investigation was still ongoing. Farley also claimed that he could not remember when the investigation was completed but “was sure it was before the prime minister ordered the bulldozers to be used.”