Fire breaks out in Parliament courtyard

Police and fire officials were called to the Parliament building for the second time in a week yesterday, after a small fire broke out in the courtyard at Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain. Senior fire officials from the Wrightson Road Fire Station said they were alerted by staff at the nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel around 11 am, who reported seeing smoke coming from the shrubs on the western side of the building.

The fire had been extinguished by the time fire fighters arrived on the scene but they proceeded to “saturate” the area. They said chemicals in the mulch around the shrubs reacted with the heat, causing te dry trimmings to ignite. A senior fire officer said there was no damage to the building.

Yesterday’s incident followed on early Wednesday when a 45-year-old homeless man  smashed four large glass panes at the Parliament Building and another four glass panes at the Independence Square Branches of First Citizen’s Bank (FCB) and Scotiabank.