Fire suspected to be electrical in origin destroyed a two-flat wooden and concrete building that housed The Woodworks Factory at Plantation Caracas, Smithfield, New Amsterdam yesterday.
Owner of the building, William Leung, 65, who resides at Pitt Street, New Amsterdam told Stabroek News that he suffered about $20 million in losses. The inferno started around 1 am.
The factory manufactured door, windows and mouldings that were supplied on orders and were also “stockpiled.”
The three-bedroom upper wooden flat was unoccupied but contained electrical appliances and home furnishings.
Leung said he received a call from his watchman that smoke was emanating from the lower flat of the building and he rushed to the scene.
He opened the door to the workshop and saw “a line of fire on an electrical wire.” Aided by the breeze from the opened door the fire quickly started to spread.
His supervisor, Muniram Tarachand also of Pitt Street, who rushed to the scene as well, told this newspaper that he attempted to “douse the smoke but it was too much. I couldn’t make it.”
In the meantime, Leung contacted the New Amsterdam Fire Service and said the fire tender arrived promptly. The firefighters accessed water from a nearby canal but were unable to save the burning building.
Leung was distressed that he “couldn’t save anything” and just had to watch everything burn. The workshop was equipped with sophisticated tools and machinery that were imported.
He said though, that the building was partially insured and he plans to start his business again.
In a quite optimistic tone he told this newspaper, “In this life it is not how many times you fall but how many times you get up back. All of us would have setbacks but I thank God for life.”
When this newspaper visited the scene yesterday several workers were there and were distressed that they were out of jobs.
