Philipsburg:--- Civil servants working at the government administration building including the eleven island council members who were at a central committee meeting were evacuated from the building after someone called the fire department telling them that there was burning scent in the building.A central committee meeting that was in process had to be adjourned until later in the day as the elected officials were told they too needed to evacuate from the building until a thorough search was done.
Two fire trucks as well as police officers rushed over to the government building to conduct searches to see if anything was alight. Workers were seen outside the building waiting to see if in fact there was fire in the building or if the call was a hoax. On numerous occasions the fire department was called to government building to put out mostly electrical fires.Workers were overheard saying that the call on Wednesday must be politically motivated since the person or persons who called the fire department could have easily called the maintenance department for them to conduct an initial search for fire. "It appears as if someone was used to stall the central committee meeting that was ongoing so that the current executive council could not finalize pending projects before October 5th" a group of civil servants was overheard saying.
In an invited comment Clive Richardson from the fire department said there was no fire at the government administration building; however the search revealed that there was a malfunctioning air conditioning unit that was making funny sounds.