Cable Bahamas Team Assess Fire Damage After Employees Battle Blaze

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ABACO, BAHAMAS – Abaconians were faced with a horrifying situation this weekend as brush fires raged, threatening many homes and businesses, and even impacting the Cable Bahamas Group of Companies as well.

In fact, dedicated employees spent the night into the early morning hours alongside volunteer fire rescue crews, battling the terrifying fires.

The Cable Bahamas Group of Companies is recognizing the brave crew as heroes. We spoke to two employees who shared their experiences:

Brandon Ingraham – Technical Operations Supervisor

“It did get kinda [sic] hot in the moment, but for most of the supplies that we were able to save, we had that done before the fire would’ve gotten here,” Ingraham said.

Jarrod Cooper – OSP Supervisor

” …so just feeling [sic] that heat with the breeze blowing, it was pretty intense,” Cooper said.

The fire raged into the night and eventually crossed into the company’s property, destroying containers housing equipment for the island.

Technical Operations Supervisor Brandon Ingraham says that they saved as much as they could, and tried their best to protect the building from going up in flames as well.

“From the first initial call, once we would’ve gotten here on the ground, the first thing would’ve been [is] to try and secure as much equipment as possible, [and] to…maintain some normalcy even after the fire would’ve [ended],” he said.

Marsh Harbour Volunteer Firefighters dispatcher Roscoe Thompson says he was also on the ground as crews fought the blaze, and he gave these suggestions that could help protect property in the future:

“Maybe putting a little barrier around the perimeter here with gravel was one suggestion, another suggestion was…to make some sprinkler heads that rise up six or eight feet, so that when a fire is approaching…you can turn them on,”

“Move some of the equipment away from the fences so its not so close to the fences…,[an idea that I gave to him] and he’s been very responsive…[so] I’m very grateful,” Thompson said.

Members from the executive team headed by CEO Franklyn Butler took the first flight Monday morning over to Abaco to assess the matter, and to check up on employees who spent the night securing equipment.

Franklyn Butler, CEO of Cable Bahamas

“[I am] really pleased to see that our employees are in good spirits and in great shape, excited to get on with the restoration efforts of our site. From a network perspective we experienced no damage to our network,”

“All of our customers are able to be serviced with continuous network, [and] we have some spare parts that we will be shipping in to make sure that we get back to business as usual, but [I am] really pleased that our employess are doing exceptionally [well]…,” Butler said.

Butler stressed the importance of the Abaco community for the company.

As for Cable Bahamas’ employees, the CEO’s visit shows them that the company cares.

“We are very grateful, [and] very appreciative of it. It lets us know how much they care for us…and that they are standing by us…through all of this,” Ingraham says.