A Director at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr Morgan A. Brown has given a vivid account of circumstances leading to the burning of the entire building of the ministry. He said the fire started at about 4 p.m. Wednesday from an air conditioner, but with the help of fire extinguishers, the fire was put out. A technician, according to him, was called in to assess the situation and give expert advice. The technician, he said, advised that once the fire had been put out, he would attend to the faulty air conditioner first thing Thursday morning. Mr Brown said 'an hour or so' later the fire started again, this time with such intensity that it became practically impossible to contain it, so fire fighters were called in. Fire personnel who responded to the call lacked the requisite equipment to do a thorough job, and their spokesperson told the media they concentrated their efforts on stopping the fire from extending to other public buildings in the vicinity as trying to save anything in the fire-engulfed building amounted to sheer waste of time. Asked what were destroyed in the inferno, Mr Brown said all equipment, air conditioners “and worse of all, the documents we have lost”. Efforts had been made to build back ups for the institutional memory of the ministry but those efforts were yet to be fully implemented when the disaster struck, he stated. The Director said though bitter, the disaster had taught the authorities a lesson which will not be lost on anyone as far as creating back-ups for essential files in all public offices was concerned. He expressed the hope that ongoing consultation would yield results as soon as possible to enable the about 500 people who lost their offices to find places from where they can continue with their work. Fire personnel, who spoke to journalists, were unhappy with media reports suggesting they looked on while the fire raged.