Many files lost in Brown’s Town courthouse fire

Despite a massive fire gutting the Brown’s Town courthouse on Sunday night, several matters set to be heard Monday proceeded as scheduled at the Addison Park Sports Complex offices as Chief Justice Bryan Sykes and court staff tally losses and sift through the charred rubble of the 1895 stone structure.

The fire, which started around 8 p.m., destroyed several court documents, with Sykes indicating that he would be speaking with the police and lawyers in order to reconstruct those files.

Several statements – if not all – that were stored electronically on computer are still available, he said.

“The impact, as you can imagine, has been very disruptive. We’ve lost a lot of files. We have some older files that were digitally converted back in 2016,” Sykes told reporters at the scene on Monday.

“Though it is a distressing moment, all is not lost, for when you have strong and effective leadership on the ground as we have had through the senior judge, Miss [Michele] Salmon, we’ve been able to resume and court is going on at Addison Park and will go on. It will be inconvenient but court will continue,” Sykes stated.

Files submitted by the police will have to be rebuilt, along with those in civil matters before the court.

“We’ll be reaching out to attorneys to resubmit some documents that were filed in court,” said the chief justice.

Sykes said that he would also reach out to Justice Minister Delroy Chuck regarding the future of the razed building and the possibility of constructing a new courthouse if lands are available nearby.

Sykes met with several court staffers and attorneys, encouraging them to continue being resilient in the face of the disaster.

“It is a very traumatic time and a very difficult time to experience a fire of this magnitude, but they have shown great resilience in the past, and we expect them to do that again because in every crisis, there is an opportunity,” he told reporters.

St Ann’s Bay Mayor Sydney Stewart visited Addison Park and pledged to offer whatever assistance they might need from the St Ann Municipal Corporation. The corporation owns the courthouse in St Ann’s Bay, but not the one in Brown’s Town, which is owned by the Government.

A forensic team from the Jamaica Fire Brigade in Kingston was at the scene yesterday commencing a probe into the origin of the fire, which so far remains unknown.

Julian Davis Buckle, head of the Jamaica Fire Brigade’s Area Two, declined to speak with the media on-site yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Dwight Powell told The Gleaner that the police are awaiting the forensic report from the Fire Brigade’s investigations.

carl.gilchrist@gleanerjm.com