A fire in New Amsterdam last evening completely destroyed two old residential buildings on the eastern half of Pitt Street, leaving one elderly woman homeless.
The fire started at around 8.10 pm and initially the fire tenders had difficulties sourcing water to fight the blaze. The fire was reportedly contained by 9.30 last night.
The two buildings are owned by Adrian Bristol, who was shocked about the losses which up to last night he couldn’t estimate. He said that he wasn’t able to save anything from the buildings. But he noted that only one of the two buildings was occupied and this was a two-storey one which his grandmother occupied.
He told this newspaper that the fire is suspected to have started in the small, unoccupied house. The yard has three houses and the fire managed to quickly spread to the two-storey one.
Although the firemen toiled feverishly they couldn’t save either of the two buildings because of the ferocity of the flames on the aging wooden buildings.
Bristol, who didn’t reside in neither of the destroyed buildings, said that he was out with friends when he got a message that his buildings were on fire. He said that he rushed to the scene and started kicking the door to the two storey house, calling for his grandmother by name. He said that he was then told by neighbours that his grandmother had made it out of the building and was safe.
The cause of the fire was up to last night unknown. The western portion of Pitt Street is a popular business centre and this had suffered a major fire some years ago.