Parliament confirmed on Tuesday that the fire that flared up again at the National Assembly on Monday afternoon had now been contained.

Further damage has been caused, with more floors of the building, which houses offices of Members of Parliament and support staff, being completely gutted. The roof of the building in which the flare-up occurred is now completely destroyed.

Parliament expects the work by the multidisciplinary team of engineers, which arrived on Monday to conduct an assessment and establish the scale of the damage, will proceed. 

Monday afternoon’s re-emergence of the fire was aided by solid south-easterly winds and saw the deployment of heavy-duty aerial fire-fighting to reinforce existing capacity.
 
“The firefighters applied a courageous and brave fighting spirit in their fight for hours last night and were able to put down the fire by midnight. Consequently, there has been the withdrawal of the reinforcement, with only six of the ten fire trucks now remaining on the scene. It is hoped that further trucks will be withdrawn during the course of the morning. The firefighters remain on-site for inspections of the various parts of the building,” Parliament added.