Investigations by the St Ann Fire Department into the cause of the deadly fire at Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre in Alexandria, St Ann, last Friday night, have reached a standstill.

According to Lewiston Gooden, the deputy superintendent in charge, firefighters have not been able to interview survivors of the fire, a crucial element to the probe.

"Investigations are not completed. So far, we have not been able to interview the victims," Gooden said. "We went to the St Ann's Bay Hospital today (Tuesday) but have not been able to interview anyone there and this is what is holding up proceedings."

To conduct interviews

Gooden said his team would be going to the Stony Hill HEART Academy, where the girls are being housed temporarily, to conduct interviews Sunday.

The interviews are expected to shed light on how the fire started and who or what was responsible.

Police investigations, in the meantime, are continuing into whether the fire was an act of arson, said a police source.

Those investigations are also not complete.

The fire, which damaged a section of the facility that housed over 60 inmates, resulted in five girls being killed. Ten others have been hospitalised; one is in critical condition at the Kingston Public Hospital.

Meanwhile, sources close to the investigations say indications are that the fire started before police threw tear-gas canisters into the building in an effort to keep the girls under control, after they pelted the lawmen with missiles upon their arrival.

The police were called in to quell a disturbance at the all-girls facility.