Must see video: Waterside fire takes block in Nassau, Bahamas. Lots of fire, not a lot of firefighters.

The video above seems to have the earliest shots of a fire around 8:00 Monday morning near the cruise port in Nassau. It destroyed a block of buildings along Bay Street frequented by the many visitors who arrive on the cruise ships. It also set fire to the roof of the Churchill Building housing the Cabinet Office.

What appears to be one of the first fire trucks to arrive shows up driver only around 1:15. A second firefighter is soon seen. The video below has more views of the firefighting operation and some interesting narration. Click here and then choose “Felipe Major’s Bay Street Fire Photos” to see a lot more firefighting action. The photographer was injured about three hours after the fire started and apparently was the only casualty. From The Tribune’s log of the day’s events:

• 11.11 am – Tribune photographer Felipe Major has been injured in the blaze after falling off of the Bacardi Building’s balcony. Emergency personnel have taken him away on a stretcher. He is conscious.

Amazingly there is not a lot of news coverage on the web. Here’s an excerpt from BahamaIslandsInfo.com:

At one point, the Churchill Building, which houses the Cabinet Office, caught fire, but was brought under control and extinguished quickly by fire officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

The Betty K building, located just east of East Street North was the reported source of the original fire which broke out before 8:00 a.m. Monday, February 14. The densely packed nature of the buildings in the area enabled the fire to spread quickly. Several fire engines from around New Providence were dispatched to the scene to respond to the major fire.

CruiseCritic.Co.UK has the impact on the arriving ships:

Although early reports on our message boards suggested that visiting cruise ships — including Disney Dream and Carnival Glory — were not allowed to debark passengers, a Disney spokeswoman confirmed that passengers were indeed allowed to debark, just later than expected. A Carnival spokesman concurred that Glory also had a delayed debarkation but passengers were ultimately allowed to get off the ship at the Nassau cruise terminal.