AML Foods Vice President of Marketing, Renea Bastian released a statement on behalf of the company on Tuesday. The statement came a day after two buildings housing two businesses owned by AML Foods, Solomon’s Food Store and Cost Right, and the Hyacinth Stuart Building, the intended home of several government offices were destroyed by fire on Monday.

Initial reports from the scene as the fire raged attributed the blaze to a generator. However Ms. Bastian said, “while the exact cause of the fire is still under investigation by the relevant authorities we can confirm that the fire did not originate in the generator room at the Solomon’s Old Trail location contrary to recent media reports. In fact, we confirmed that as of this morning the Solomon’s generator and electrical room, which were not affected by the fire remained in tact and operational. We do understand that immediately before the fire construction work was being carried out at the rear of the Department of Labour building in the vicinity of a fuel tank. We can also confirm that this construction work was in no way affiliated with Solomon’s or Cost Right.”

Ms. Bastian also assured the public the staff and customers were safely evacuated from the building during the fire. She said, “while we are certainly devastated by the loss of our stores, our commitment to our employees and that community is as strong as ever. We have activated our business continuity plans and our team members are being temporarily relocated to work at our nearby store locations to ensure job security and of course minimize disruption to their lives. We are already actively exploring next steps, including plans to rebuild and we will keep the community informed as these efforts move forward. Our assets are fully insured and we have begun discussion with our partners and we are confident that we will fully recover from this.”

AML Foods investment at the Old Trail Road location is estimated to be $32.5 million before the fire.