Fire Chief Marlon Gentle yesterday confirmed that the fire which gutted four Regent Street stores and destroyed the top flat of the Lucky Dollar Furniture and Electronics store on Tuesday was electrical in origin and started in the living quarters of Chinese nationals.
Gentle said that the fire started at the back of the building, which was occupied as living quarters by the Chinese who had leased a section of a duplex owned by Claire and Anthony Pires. The fire chief said that makeshift wiring caused the circuit to fail which sparked the fire.
Gentle said that there were three Chinese nationals living in the building, not four as previously reported, and the fourth person seen in the building was their neighbour October (only name given)who was assisting them at the time of the fire. He said that the Chinese woman and the neighbour were savagely beaten by persons in an attempt to rob them while they were on Alexander Street on the day of the fire but they were later rescued by fire fighters.
The fire chief said that they had some difficulty communicating with the Chinese and had to utilize the services of an interpreter for the female. He added that the males speak fluent English.
On Tuesday, sometime after 5am, fire-fighters said they received a call informing of the blaze. Four stores in three buildings on the northern side of Regent Street between Camp and Alexander streets were gutted and the Courts Guyana subsidiary, Lucky Dollar’s top flat was burnt. The destroyed stores were Indra’s Fashions, Boyo’s Fashion, and a duplex owned by Clairan’s that housed the American Styles Boutique owned by them and the Chinese Store.
The owner of Indra’s Fashion, Ramdat Shiwprasad, 65, collapsed at the scene and was pronounced dead at the hospital after he suffered a heart attack.
Lucky Dollar’s management had said that while the two other flats of the store were not destroyed by the fire, all the furniture and electrical equipment on those floors were damaged by water. A section of the second floor had also caved in and was being monitored given that it is a potential hazard to persons entering the building. The nearby City Mall’s western side was scorched.
