Firefighters are still carrying out cooling down operations at the warehouse fire at Wisynco's Lakes Pen facility in St. Catherine.
The firefighters are battling several pockets of fire within the burnt shell of the 260,000 square foot warehouse. They expect to complete the operations by the end of the day.
The Fire personnel, who have been battling the blaze since Thursday, say they are being hampered by a lack of water.
The fire team, which stands at approximately 35 firefighters, say several conditions are hampering their efforts to put out the blaze. Stewart Beckford, Assistant Commissioner for Area 3 of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, outlined the challenges firefighters were encountering.
"There was a problem with water when we got here and also, given the material that was in the building, (that made) it very difficult for us to do our firefighting operations. Also the wind, at one point was very gusty and that also would have worked against how well we would have fought the fire. Overall, I'm satisfied with the way how we went about it, under the circumstances," he said.
Wisynco officials and engineers from Tankweld Construction, Friday morning, conducted an assessment of the damage caused by the fire. An attempt will be made to start their clean up operation as soon as they have been given clearance by the firefighters.
Meanwhile, CEO of Wisynco Andrew Mahfood, says the next move for the company is to rent other locations to be used as temporary production and storage sites. He says the search has already started.
"The good thing," he said, "is that none of our production has been affected, so our full beverage production will start back up once we are able to procure and use up some of our materials here. The key right now, for us, is to secure leased premises where we can now move that production and house our imported finished goods which are gonna be coming in."
Mr. Mahfood has also indicated that there are no plans to lay off workers.
"I want our team to know that our directors feel their commitment and their tremendous love and respect and admiration for their company. This is our employees' company, and (despite) this tragedy, our team members will stay employed and we will deploy them to those leased premises," he declared.
Security at the compound has been increased as a safety precaution.
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