A massive blaze on St John’s Road caused millions of dollars in damage and captured the attention of the Island in August.A fire alarm went off in HWP’s Paint and Repair Department shortly before 2pm on August 8. The fire quickly spread to the nearby vehicle showroom and administration offices.More than 100 staff escaped the building without injury, but were left to watch helplessly as it became fully engulfed in flames.A team of as many as 60 firefighters battled the inferno for hours as a crowd of hundreds looked on from behind yellow caution tape. Some said they could see the column of thick smoke as far away as Flatts.The fire was largely contained by around 5pm but firefighters remained at the scene, soaking the area with water and tackling little pockets of fire as they flared up.By the time the fire was fully extinguished the body and spray centre, car and bike showrooms and administrative offices had been completely gutted, along with 12 customer cars and ten showroom vehicles.HWP Group president and CEO Jonathan Brewin described the blaze as catastrophic, estimating that the fire caused millions of dollars of damage. Along with extensive structural damage, the fire destroyed the company’s computer database.And staff later discovered that they were unable to retrieve any information from an off-site backup database.The bulk of the company’s staff returned to work later that week; 21 were let go three weeks after the blaze.A full investigation into the cause of the fire was launched. Information gathering is said to be complete however the cause of the blaze has yet to be determined.The flames were limited to the HWP site thanks to the hard work of the Bermuda Fire Service, however smoke, which poured over the St John’s Road area, sparked other safety concerns.Ministry of Health officials later said that heavy rainfall the following morning limited the potential impact of airborne toxins, but area residents remained concerned that their water tanks may have been tainted.Government had issued a warning to residents in the area while the fire was still burning, to block the drains leading into their water tanks to prevent potentially toxic ash from mixing with drinking water. Some were unable to do so before the next day’s rainfall.Between August 15 and 17, Heath Department staff collected samples from several affected water tanks for overseas testing. Shadow Health Minister Kathy Michelmore argued the samples should have been collected much sooner as the public’s health was on the line.