MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Investigators from the Jamaica Fire Brigade are still trying to determine the circumstances surrounding a fire which gutted an offtrack betting (OTB) lounge on Manchester Road in Mandeville on Wednesday.

The fire, which destroyed all 19 gaming machines, televisions and other equipment at the establishment, started in the wee hours of Wednesday morning on the Big Ben plaza.Head of the Manchester Fire Department Superintendent Rohan Powell pointed out that the lounge is situated in the heart of the Mandeville commercial district.“About 1:50 am the brigade received a call of a fire at Juici plaza. When we arrived on the scene we realised it was the offtrack betting and gaming parlour adjacent to the plaza,” said Powell. “We had two units on the scene. Eventually the Christiana unit arrived to make it three. We attacked the blaze with two jets. After everything was cooled down and we started our assessment, we realised that everything was totally lost.

“We have not yet been able to ascertain a loss figure because the investigations are incomplete,” added Powell.He said fire investigators from Kingston were scheduled to visit the scene on Wednesday. “We have not yet concluded the original cause of the fire. There were a lot of offtrack betting machines. They had the games, lotto machines, everything that was inside the building on the upper floor,” he said.The fire happened near the intersection of Manchester Road, Ward Avenue, Perth Road and Caledonia Road.

In February 2020 a massive fire engulfed the Heaven’s Fesco service station across the road from the OTB location.