By Mark McGowan and Sara Bharrat
Dozens of people are now homeless or without jobs following the blaze that ripped through Regent Street yesterday afternoon.
Sixty-eight-year-old Rudolph Montouth and his reputed wife Mildred Gibbs lost their home in the blaze. They lived at Lot 142 Regent Street, in the compound to the west of DM Beauty World. This is where they had lived for the last ten years.
Although the elderly gentleman was yet to see the remains of his burnt home, he seemed to accept the word of his neighbours who told him that he had lost his home.
Montouth told Stabroek News that neither he nor his partner was at home when the fire started and consequently they were unable to save anything before it spread to his home. He and his reputed wife would have lost mainly clothing and furniture, he disclosed.
The man said that he was at the corner gaffing when the fire ignited. According to him, shortly after he arrived at the scene several of his neighbours told him that his house had burnt down.
He told this newspaper that he was planning to relocate anyway. His reputed wife, he disclosed, was at a relative and he said that he would most likely spend the night there as well.
He was very concerned about his neighbours especially Iris Lee, who he said was an elderly woman who mostly lived alone at Lot 142 W ½ Regent Street. Her home was located in the same yard as Montouth’s. However, neighbours told Stabroek News that after the fire started Lee was quickly moved to safety.
Meanwhile, Susan D’Anjou and her two daughters who lived in the same yard as Montouth and Lee, were anxiously waiting to see what damage had been done to their home. She said that while her home had not been burnt, it had been scorched by the fire and would have been soaked.
According to the woman, she was in her yard picking up clothes when she noticed the fire and only had time to flee the premises. As the woman watched the fire-fighters battle to control the blaze, she said that she was hoping for the best.
Meanwhile police officers and fire-fighters had a challenging task controlling the massive crowd which had gathered on Regent Street. Although there was a huge police presence on the scene, it was no match for the massive crowd which had gathered. While some members of the crowd pushed and ran past the officers to get a closer glimpse of the flames others did so as they attempted to fulfill clearly sinister motives.
This newspaper observed several confrontations between police officers and men who they assumed were attempting to loot the business places.
As flames raged out of control police ranks were forced to turn out in their numbers and barricades were erected in an effort to keep hundreds of curious citizens a safe distance away.
However, several citizens managed to get pass the barricades to where the buildings, located on Regent Street between Light (western) and Albert (eastern) streets, were ablaze. As fire-fighters worked to control the fire police toiled to get stubborn bystanders out of the way.
“They just happy,” Colin Downer was overheard muttering from his seat amongst his possessions on the Regent Street sidewalk. Downer’s Lot 141 Regent Road, Bourda house, located behind another house and next door to DM Beauty World, was badly scorched on its eastern side.
The man, who shares the house with his cousin Erwin Dow and his reputed wife said that they managed to move only a small amount of their possessions from the house. Two chairs, several bags hastily stuffed with various articles and baskets of clothes were stacked around Downer on the sidewalk.
Dow, however, stood a short distance away from his cousin and their possessions with a sombre expression on his face. As he observed the confusion around him, he told Stabroek News that he was on his way home from work when he learnt of the fire. The man said by the time he got home nothing much could be done.
The eastern side of their house, Downer explained, was badly scorched but he expressed hope that the rest of the structure was in place. Downer said that heavy smoke and water damage may very well be “the better end” of the deal for him and his family to get.
The eastern side of that house was scorched as well and it was that house’s roof that fire fighters took to in their effort to squelch the flames.
Another man who was standing among the cousins observed that the onlookers were fairly “rowdy” and said that the situation was “ridiculous”. The man said that a police officer had been rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital after a member of the crowd pelted him with a heavy object. The windscreen of a police vehicle was also smashed in.
“Somebody in the crowd pick up something and pelt this police to the side of his head,” the man said, “and they buss up the police vehicle windscreen as well.”
Stabroek News later learnt from hospital sources that the police officer, whose identity they refused to reveal, sustained a wound to the left side of his head. The wound was not “very serious” but required several stitches, they said.
“Is only in Guyana this nonsense does happen,” the man stated. “Imagine we at a fire and the police got to come to make sure people don’t kill themselves by accident or that looting doesn’t take place…ridiculous I tell you.”
Meanwhile, panic rippled through residents of Charlotte Street (runs parallel to the south of Regent Street).
They watched the back view as flames ate the buildings and those persons who lived directly behind the blazing block began emptying their homes.
“I ain’t taking any chances,” one woman was heard muttering as she rolled a heavy barrel through her front door…that back house already catching and if it reach behind here then is bare problems we in.”
Residents who lived further along the street braved the heavy smoke, which made seeing and breathing difficult, to help their neighbours in potential danger empty their homes of valuable possessions.
As the firemen battled to control the blaze, Transport Minister Robeson Benn and Housing Minister Irfaan Ali were on the scene offering their support. They were later joined by Presidential Advisor on Empowerment Odinga Lumumba.
