Bridge in St James collapses after residents used fire to clear debris ahead of hurricane

A section of the main road from downtown Montego Bay, St James, which leads to the heavily-populated Cornwall Court community, is now impassable after a bridge collapsed on Tuesday due to a fire set by residents to clear debris from under the structure as they prepared for Hurricane Beryl.

The entire bridge became engulfed by the fire.

According to reports, shortly after 6 p.m. residents were busy clearing waterways in the community of debris ahead of the hurricane.

They reportedly found clearing under the bridge quite challenging so they decided to light the debris in the hope that the fire would clear a path for the water to flow freely.

However, the fire, which reportedly became quite intense, caused hardened plastic under the bridge to catch fire.

The St James Fire Brigade was alerted and a unit was dispatched to the location.

While putting out the fire, the bridge collapsed under the weight of the fire unit, causing a section of the truck to fall into a hole that was created.

The collapse of the bridge resulted in a major traffic pile-up in the community as motorists contemplated their next course of action.

Eventually, most of them turned back, traversing the Farm Heights community to get into Cornwall Court.       

While efforts to reach Member of Parliament Heroy Clarke, who lives less than 10 minutes from the location, were unsuccessful, a source close to him told The Star that he is aware of the situation and plans to visit the area later today with a view of seeing what short-term measures can be put in place to make a section of the bridge usable.

A resident told The Star this morning that the situation is unfortunate because had the authorities been properly maintaining the bridge, residents would not have been forced to take on the clearing under the bridge themselves.

The bridge has had a long history of being clogged during major rains, causing flooding in that section of the community.

- Adrian Frater

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