Young businessman Wayne Fagan was almost at a loss for words on Wednesday after fire gutted his popular Print BIG store, at the McMaster's Centre, in Portmore Town Centre.

"This is a big setback for me," Fagan, the son member of parliament for South East St Catherine, Colin Fagan, said. He added that based on his assessments, he lost basically everything and will be out of operation for a while. A number of employees are also out of a job because of the fire.

damage

Fagan said that rough estimates put the damage in excess of $7 million, which includes equipment and raw materials.

Workers on the plaza were furious that it took firemen about 30 minutes to respond to the fire.

However, Dennis Francis, assistant district officer for the Spanish Town fire station, refuted this claim. He said the emergency call came in at 3:46 p.m., and his crew responded immediately. The fire truck arrived at approximately 4:01 p.m., 15 minutes after they received the call. One unit from the Spanish Town station responded, they also called for backup from a nurse (water) tender - a vehicle that supplies additional water for the fire truck. There are no functioning units in Portmore, therefore, the Spanish Town station had to respond.

Dennis said the firefighters managed to get the fire, which was confined to Print BIG, under control. "When we arrived at the scene, the building was fully engulfed by fire, we managed to get it under control and prevented it from spreading to the rest of the building."

Witnesses said the fire started at about 3:15 p.m. Fagan, who was not at his store when the fire began, said the fire began at the back of the establishment, but he is not clear what caused the fire.

poor state

The member of parliament, who was on the scene with his son, was not a happy man. He stressed that the Jamaica Fire Brigade is in a poor state. "The fire service is in a deplorable condition, one (functioning) unit (and a nurse tender) in the whole of St Catherine. The unit that is in Spanish Town actually belongs to Linstead," he said.

Print BIG, as its name suggests, does large format printing. This include posters, banners and billboards. They are credited with creating the MegaMart sign in the Portmore Town Centre, promotional printing on Jamaica Beverages vans and signs for Mr Woody's Restaurants, among other accomplishments.