The public will not pick up the tab for the Belco fire on July 14 that plunged Hamilton?s businesses into darkness for two-and-a-half days.

Bermuda Electric Light Company (Belco) CEO and President Garry Madeiros told Hamilton Rotarians yesterday the company would foot the growing bill.

?We do not intend to pass the cost onto the customer,? Mr. Madeiros said. ?We have suffered costs and damages that are very extenuating to say the least. Those costs will be borne to Belco. We lost probably $3 million to $5 million in sales. To date it has probably cost us $1.5 million in restoration. We haven?t finalised the insurance claim, but I know there is a $500,000 deductible.?

He said all of these costs will be paid by Belco and not by increasing the price of electricity.

The bulk of yesterday?s speech dealt with the question of who was at fault. However, he said only in the fire suppression system could human error be found. ?Bermuda has a propensity of having someone they like to blame for something taking place,? he said. ?The fact that something happened isn?t good enough it?s got to be someone?s fault.?

The failure of a 34-year-old switch-gear could not have been prevented by anyone, he said.

?We have over 900 protections on our system, with regards to this particular one some of the protections worked and one or two of them failed to work.?

He said one of them jammed ? even though it worked in December ? and allowed 22,000 volts into the switch for 16 minutes, resulting in a massive explosion. Another piece of protection equipment did not work because Belco was waiting for a part which was ordered in January, he said.

But he conceded it was Belco?s fault that fire suppressers were disconnected.

?We did have fire suppression and it should have been working,? he said. ?However, it is important as a matter of record that fire suppression equipment is not legislatively required in a facility such as this, nor is it industry standard to have fire suppression in this type of facility.?

He said he would like to see manual suppression switches be installed outside of the plant so once smoke is seen coming from a building, it can be pulled and the suppressers fired. The equipment was not too old, he emphasised, and was also well maintained.

?This particular plant has an expected life of 40 to 60 years, it was installed through 1971 to 1983,? he said.

He said Belco was confident of the lifespan of the switch room because it was running at two-thirds of its capacity and had tied its two newly commissioned engines to it.

This switch room that exploded was not the one being taken out of commission in 2008, he said, but rather the adjacent building. This building was also damaged by the fire and was retired early.

Currently each group within the electricity monopoly is responsible for its own suppression equipment, but going forward it will be centralised, he said.

Just completed is a month-long dismantling and removal of asbestos of the destroyed switch room, but Mr. Madeiros said he did not think there was any risk of asbestos exposure to Fire Service Personnel or to the surrounding area.

Both Belco and the Department of Health took readings of the atmosphere and droppings around Serpentine Road after the fire.

?I have not heard anything that is above the standard of what one would expect. The answer is feel very comfortable with where we were at,? he said.

Three engines are still disengaged from the grid that will be restored next summer.

He admitted the fire damaged Belco?s credibility took attention away from good things the company had done in the last few years.

?We had our own independent external audit done of our health and safety operations and we had an internal audit done three years ago. Both highlighted a number of improvements we had to make. That is what we have been working on, trying to improve safety,? he said.

Belco felt confident it could keep supplying Bermuda despite increased development on the Island, he said.