Fire this morning gutted the Humphrey’s building on Main and Holmes streets.
The fire occurred around 2 am and among the businesses that went up in flames was the Frandec Travel Service which has been located there for many years.
Residents told Stabroek News this morning that they heard two thunderous explosions at around 2 am and when they rushed out they saw a car departing the scene. Flames, they said quickly engulfed the old wooden building. The fire service responded fairly quickly but there wasn’t much that they could do as the fire had already spread. The fire service sourced water from the canal outside of the Bank of Guyana.
Frandec has around 20 employees. Other businesses that were housed in the building were the LIAT office, Dagron’s Travel Service and Humphrey’s Hardware Store.
The building was recently renovated, employees of one of the businesses said and air conditioning was put in.
A vehicle, GJJ 3407 which was parked in the area was partly damaged.
Officials of the Guyana Trinidad and Mutual Fire Insurance company visited the site this morning.
The owners of the building had been in a dispute with the owner of the building next door to them on Main Street. That building was constructed very close to theirs and there had been complaints about this.
The three-storey building, which is said to be around a hundred years old, was owned by H.G Humphrey and Frandec Travel Services under the company H&F Inc.
According to Kathryn Eytle-Mc Lean, Chief Executive Officer of Frandec and a Director on the board of H&F Inc, she got a call from one her employees who related that a colleague from another travel agency had called her and said that the building was on fire. The woman said she immediately contacted MMC Security Services, which is hired by Frandec, and they confirmed the fire. By the time she rushed down to the scene the building was almost destroyed but fire-fighters were there containing the blaze.
Eytle-Mc Lean said the security guard on duty reported that he saw a bright light in the top flat and then he heard what sounded like a loud explosion and the fire started. She reported that the top flat was unoccupied at the time. The woman also said that residents of the area reported that they saw a white car circling the area just before the fire and just after the explosion they saw the car driving away.
Residents also reported to Stabroek News that they had seen the car driving off after they heard what sounded like two loud explosions.
Peter Fraser, another Director of the H&F Inc company, said that Humphrey first owned the building about seventy years ago and about twenty years later Frandec became part owners.
Eytle-Mc Lean said that her company was located at the front of the building and occupied the first and second floors. They employed about 20 persons while the other three companies in the building had another 12 persons employed with them. The CEO of Frandec said that she is expected to have a meeting with her employees sometime this morning to decide on the way forward. She was worried about breaking the news to her mother, Gem Eytle whom she described as the “backbone of the building”, who is on a plane en-route to Australia to join a cruise. She said they would have to convince her mother to remain on her holiday as there is nothing she can do.
Fraser and Eytle-Mc Lean estimated their losses to be in the millions.
LIAT
Meanwhile, General Sales Agent at the LIAT office Stephen Michael, reported that the office was their only one in Georgetown but they also have an office at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri. He said about four persons were employed at the city office and everything they had in the office was destroyed. However, he said arrangements have been made to have reservations made at the airport and persons who would have purchased tickets have no problem as all information is electronically stored and can be accessed at the airport office. LIAT had been at the building since June 2005.
