Fire at D'bocas -- escape door locked

Several people inside a building on Independence Square, Port of Spain which houses several businesses, including D'Bocas restaurant, had to beat a hasty retreat to the rooftop and onto a multi-storey carpark, when fire broke out in the kitchen of the restaurant on Wednesday. This after the steel door of the building's emergency exit was locked on the outside.

The locked fire escape door forced at least ten workers to climb over a fence from the building to a multi-storey car park to the back. Added to the locked fire escape, the pathway is partially used as a storage unit for businesses on the ground floor.

Fire officials said they will be following up with owners of the building after they realized that the pathway of the fire escape was found to be used as a storage room.

Speaking at the scene, Fire Sub-Station Officer (FSSO) Diane Noel said the fire exit was partially blocked and the door was locked from the outside.

Newsday was told that the information was passed on to the fire prevention unit of the fire service who will be continuing the investigations. The fire took place in the kitchen of D'Bocas on the second floor of the three-storey building.

According to Noel, the fire took place at 9 am and was contained without the blaze spreading from the kitchen. Workers of D’Bocas attempted to put out the fire using three fire extinguishers but were unsuccessful and fire officers were called in.

The ceiling of the kitchen suffered the most damage and the entire building had to be ventilated from the smoke. Workers from both D’ Bocas and City Gym, the latter being located on the third floor, said they had to climb over to the parking garage of Nicholas Court at the back of their building to escape, as a result of the partially blocked fire escape.

Gym instructor Angela London said she warned the authorities about the fire escape issue back in 2018, following another incident. “It's a good thing that carpark was there, because of the smoke, we could not see to come out so we had to climb over the fence and come down through the carpark to get out,” London said, adding that she and five others were in the gym at the time.

Newsday spoke with one a worker at D’ Bocas who said they were heating oil to begin cooking when the fire started. They were escorted out the back of the building then to the third floor where they climbed over a barrier to escape.

Newsday contacted a manager regarding the fire escape. He said the gate of the fire escape is locked to stop people from entering through the fire escape from Independence Square and possibly entering businesses from this route. The manager did not answer when asked if they stored goods in the hallway thus narrowing the fire escape.

When Newsday checked the OSH act, we saw that Section 27 (1) of the act states: “In every industrial establishment, the doors that are provided for use as fire exits shall, while work is in progress at that industrial establishment, be either left unlocked, or secured in such a way as to be capable of being readily and quickly opened from the inside.”

Section 26(5) of the act adds: “The means of escape specified in the certificate shall be properly maintained and kept free from obstruction at all times.”