effort between the Bermuda Fire Service and the volunteer St. George's Fire Brigade.

One floor of a split-level home on Wellington Slip Road was gutted causing an estimated $175,000 worth of damage.

Late yesterday afternoon BFS fire prevention officers were investigating the cause of the fire.

A BFS spokesman reported yesterday the original emergency call came in at 10.35 a.m. and the first of seven trucks was on the scene less than nine minutes later.

By 11.30 a.m. the fire had been completely extinguished. Nine firefighters in three trucks from the BFS Clearwater Station and 15 St. George's firefighters in four trucks attended the scene.

The spokesman said: "We did some 40 minutes of fire fighting. Once we knocked it down, the bulk of the work was for about 40 minutes.

"The firefighters from both services did well,'' he added. "It was a very good stop that they did. It was in an old section of the building and we were concerned that the roof would collapse.

"Every opening to that floor had smoke and flames coming out when we got there. The fire was very well involved on arrival. A team of three went in and did the initial survey for people and started the knock down (of the fire).

The survey is routine -- at no time was anyone reported as missing.'' Mopping up: Twenty four firefighters from the Bermuda Fire Service and the volunteers from the St. George's Fire Brigade attended a blaze at this Wellington Slip Road home late yesterday morning. An estimated $175,000 worth of damage was caused to just one floor.

WEATHER WEA