– vendors lose $millions
An early morning fire, suspected of being electrical in origin, destroyed two stalls at Section K in the Bourda Green yesterday, leaving the owners facing millions of dollars in losses.
Stalls belonging to Chandroutie Seepersaud and William King were completely destroyed while another stall owned by Bishondai Rajkumar was partially destroyed. The three structures were located close to each other near to the Orange Walk entrance of the Bourda Green.
When Stabroek News visited the scene of the fire yesterday, persons there related that the area suffered a power outage around 2 am. They said shortly after power was restored around 3 am they heard an explosion and someone noticed smoke emanating from the roof of one of the stalls.
King, whose stall was located at Lot 172-173, told Stabroek News yesterday that he could not estimate his losses but that he had “lost everything”. He said he had been vending in the Bourda Green some ten years now and never expected to one day suffer losses to fire. The elderly man recounted that he closed up his stall on Friday but did not vend over the weekend since he had several events to attend. He said he was informed about the fire early yesterday morning and when he arrived at the scene he noticed that the structure completely destroyed.
Seepersaud related that she and her daughter, Rajkumar, had been vending at the location for a number of years. She was short for words when asked for an estimate of the losses she had suffered.
Rajkumar’s husband told this newspaper that he and his wife lost close to $3 million in groceries and beverages in the fire. He said soon after the fire started yesterday the Guyana Fire Service was contacted and a fire tender arrived on the scene shortly after but without any water. He said he and other nearby stall owners continued to pour buckets of water in their attempt to put out the blaze but only managed to save his stall. He said the structure was not insured and noted that only a few days ago he and his wife had expended a huge sum of money on stock.
Officials from the Fire Service are reported to be investigating the cause of the fire.