A city businessman was spared a complete disaster after a fire yesterday afternoon destroyed a BMW, two toy motor cycles and a number of brand new television sets that were in his storage garage.

Luckily quick action by the Guyana Fire Service saved his home which is located above the garage, but there was still millions of dollars worth of damage.

A distraught Johnny Singh who is associated with Exotic Rental which is popularly known for its white stretch-limousine, told reporters that around 4.15 pm he got a call informing him of a fire at his Lot 38 Cummings Street, Alberttown home. When he got there, he said he was met with thick smoke and fire.

Ruined: This was all that was left of the BMW after the fire.

“I saw a toy motor cycle on fire,” he recounted before stating that earlier in the day he had plugged a 12 volt battery charger into it. The businessman told reporters that he believed that high voltage went to the charger and it was that which caused the fire.

“My belief is that the 12 volt charger caught fire and from there it would have expanded and damaged a few television sets. If it’s not the fire, it was water,” he said with a rueful slight shake of the head.

He said that a BMW, PFF 808 valued at about $2.5 M had been completely destroy-ed, and that the heat from the flames had melted some of the flat screen TV sets which were still wrapped in plastic. Some of these had been valued at as much as $500,000 and about 12 of them were completely destroyed.
The two bikes were valued at $100,000 each.

Under control
The businessman said that the firemen had arrived at the scene about 10-15 minutes after he had got there. He said that they had worked quickly and had managed to get the blaze under control.

The man said he could not put a figure on the damage because he had not ventured into his home to see what the fire had done.

However, where the damage in the garage was concerned, that was in the millions.
Singh told the media that luckily the limousine was in the workshop at the time of the fire, and had it been in the garage he might have been faced with even more damage.

He later blamed the incident on the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) stating that he had experienced high voltage before when several items were damaged as a consequence.

“I think that GPL is the culprit. I had this very problem last year when lots of lights and equipment were damaged but I did not report the matter because it’s a waste of time,” Singh said adding that a relative who was in a similar position made a report to the power company three years ago and to date nothing had come out of that matter.

He said he would first consult with his insurance company before thinking about lodging a complaint with the light company.
When this newspaper arrived on the scene, the street was crowded with persons and there were two fire tenders. Firemen were still using their hoses and they were later seen breaking off the hood of a car which was still smoking.

Persons in neighbouring buildings which included a Chinese restaurant and an Internet café had already evacuated and were standing on the road watching the thick black smoke emanating from the garage.

Terrence Bhagwandin said that he and others were in the JT Online Internet Café and Computer Supplies when they noticed smoke coming from Singh’s garage next door. They later saw fire and they immediately began fetching out computers which were loaded into a car.

Police, some heavily armed as well as more fire officials later arrived at the scene.