Photos by Orlando Charles
A fire ripped through a section of a four-storey building at the corner of Avenue of the Republic and America Street yesterday morning, disrupting several small businesses and causing the destruction of tens of millions of dollars in goods.
Firefighters fought valiantly and contained the fire from spreading, while not much was lost from the ground floor, which housed some eight small businesses including a barbershop, as they managed to remove much of their property.
However, owner of the building Rudat Persaud told Stabroek News that it was only yesterday that he had offloaded containers of goods for storage on the other floors. He estimated his losses in the range of tens of millions plus the damage done to the building.
The cause of the fire was unknown and Persaud had no idea how it might have been started.
At around 11.30am, smoke was seen billowing from the building.
“We were in the barbershop [one of the businesses on the ground floor] and like we de feeling a heat all the time but we didn’t take it as anything. Is when somebody outside pointed out that the building smoking is then when everybody realise what de happening,” an eyewitnesses told Stabroek News. He added that after all of the other businesses were alerted, they all rushed to get their property out of the building.
“Everybody move so fast and get their stuff out from the bottom and so I don’t think is much get damage or lost from the stores,” he added, while noting that it was only a few minutes before the fire tenders arrived at the scene.
Acting Fire Chief Winston McGregor told Stabroek News that the building had no fire-fighting capabilities. “We got a call about 11:34 about a fire and we responded with three appliances. When we got here, we got into fire-fighting operation and after the water from the tanks were exhausted, we then went to an open source,” he said, while adding that they were prevented for a short time from accessing water from the nearby trench because it was heavily silted.
“From the information that has been provided, there was mostly clothing and shoes and those kinds of things and the owner told me it is used as a bond. The first, second and third floors are used as bonds and the floors carried no fire-fighting capabilities,” he said.
Deputy Mayor of Georgetown Sherod Duncan was on the scene and highlighted his concerns for store workers, whom he said would most likely be on the “breadline” come tomorrow. “We have to continue to enforce the city bylaws, which provide for such that where there are commercial buildings and residential buildings, there are adequate fire hydrants,” Duncan said.
He said the proximity of the nearby South Ruimveldt Bus Park was also a worry. “…Another area of concern would be a bus park such as the South bus park being in such close proximity to a commercial building. We see the circumstances unfolding before us and, thankfully, there was no loss of life or injury but it’s a clear concern about having the bus park so close and where it goes next will be a concern,” he said.
One of the workers from one of the businesses, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she is concerned about what will happen to her job. While it was just the second floor that was destroyed by the fire, as firefighters were able to contain it from spreading further, the lower levels sustained a large amount of water damage.
“Obviously we gon can’t go back in there now plus we don’t know when we gon be able to go back in there and that’s a concern. We not even sure that they gon give we back we job but all we could do is wait,” the woman said.
Some of the other workers expressed the same sentiments and gratitude towards the firefighters for containing the fire.
There was also a heavy police presence at the scene and Commander of ‘A’ Division Clifton Hicken explained to Stabroek News that it was to ensure that the fire tenders were allowed to manoeuvre freely and to prevent any looting.
