The fire that destroyed the offices of Front Street group Queen Management will help it to modernise and create efficiencies as a paperless company. Thursday’s fire that devastated the offices, as well as the computers and desks within, forced the workforce to find a temporary location and resume business as seamlessly as possible.

Dawn Zuill, Queen Management president and owner, explained that while she was upset to see the building go up in flames, there was always a bright side.

“This does present an opportunity for us to go paperless,” she said. “Our efforts have been towards Cloud-based, paperless efficiencies. There are a number of ways to achieve that but we now have a totally clean slate.”

Group sales director Anthony Mocklow added: “The reinsurance companies, up until a few years ago, had millions and millions of paper files.

“There is a silver lining in any misfortune — this will allow us to modernise and make the technological advancements that we were planning even more quickly.”

Ms Zuill said that all records had been backed up digitally and there were no losses.

“Everything that we have was replaceable,” she added, and that thanks to a robust disaster recovery plan, the business was able to almost seamlessly continue operating after the blaze.

“Our plan was in place and it was executed within hours,” Ms Zuill said. “The fire started at about 4am, we were on Front Street by 6am and we were in The Spot [restaurant] by 7am.

“[Thomas] Powell [the owner] took us in and set up tables so our team could meet. Every single member of our staff showed up to this makeshift office and within three hours and we were back to business as usual.

“E-mails were redirected, the landline calls were redirected to mobile phones so when calls came through people were asking, ‘How can you answer, didn’t your phones burn?’

“All our clients were contacted by the end of the day. It went better than I expected. Technology is a phenomenal thing — we really only lost our desks and our computers. Technology is such that our intellectual property is up in the Cloud.”

Ms Zuill commended businesses and the community for the outpouring of support in the aftermath of the fire, including Fireminds chief executive officer Michael Branco who put them up in his Pitt’s Bay Road data centre at Ideation House.

“It has been an amazing effort and I hope people appreciate the outpouring and sincere support we have had from clients, vendors, competitors and government agencies,” Ms Zuill said. “When it really does hit the fan there are so many people willing to offer support. We are very, very thankful.”

Mr Mocklow added: “Managing the inbound calls from people trying to help was as much a full-time role. We have seven companies and seven social media environments to communicate through.”

While workflow was ceaseless and records were saved, Ms Zuill said there was still an emotional toll to the offices burning down.

“It has been 17 years for me personally and business-wise as far as that chapter is concerned,” she said. “I was pregnant with my son Liam in that building — he grew up in that office. My son is now 6ft tall and 14 and on the morning of the fire he helped to set up the temporary computers and so forth to keep the team up and running.”

The company is temporarily housed at the Neptune Group Ltd at Par-la-Ville Place thanks to president and chief executive Barry Brewer. Ms Zuill is already looking for a new location to house the business.

“It is very exciting. We are not in a hurry,” she said.

Mr Mocklow added: “One thing I will never forget is Dawn’s immortal words, ‘The phoenix will rise from the ashes’.”