Saturday’s fire brings headache for DPP chambers

Director of Public Prosecution Mrs. Shalimar Ali-Hack picks up a case jacket covering in the compound of the DPP Chambers on Saturday during a fire.

Several files were successfully saved from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Chambers during Saturday’s fire but it may take some time before they can be useful again.

The DPP, Shalimar Ali-Hack told BIG Smith News Watch that the files will need to be reorganized since they were hurriedly removed from the office and placed in another area.

Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn among firefighters inside the building of the fire on Saturday

“They were just bringing them out as they were able to put their hands on it and at that time, the fire was raging and everything has been mixed up; so they brought out most of the paper and they’ve taken them to another office but now they have to be organized,” she told BIG Smith News Watch.

As such, the DPP noted that the work of her Chambers will face a great setback since “files are not readily available so to speak.”

Further, once the files are sorted, efforts will be made to ascertain whether any file is missing pages or entire files missing.

Asked about intentions to digitise the documents to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s incident, the DPP noted that she has been requesting such assistance for several years now.

“I think this re-emphasises the point,” Mrs. Ali-Hack noted. This point was further cemented with the office being able to save all of its hard drives from being destroyed.

She alluded to the fire at the Brickdam Police Station on October 3, 2021 which destroyed majority of the building and documents stored there.

A fire of unknown origin on Saturday destroyed a large part of the building which houses the DPP office, the Police Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and Officers Barracks at Eve Leary, Kingston, Georgetown.