By Abigail Semple
On Easter Monday night, some of the victims of the Barrack Street, Kingston fire were forced to sleep on the cold concrete floor at the front of the gutted building, while most of the children were sent to the Guyana Relief Council’s shelter.
For them, their next home is uncertain as they all said that they have nowhere else to go.
When Stabroek News revisited the scene of the fire yesterday, some of the victims were taking shelter from the morning sun under a building next door to the Anglican Diocese of Guyana, also on Barrack Street.
The families now without a home due to the fire are those of Dacia Amsterdam (family of five); Patricia Cornette (family of five); Keon McPherson (family of three); Lisa Joseph (three); Tracy Johnny (three); Colin Clarke (three); Virginia Romascindo (six); Gloria Nedd (four); Adrian Briggs (nine); Samantha Harris (three); Antonette McKenzie (four); Coreen Fraser (six); and Brenetta Wilson (one). Children are in the majority among the 55 victims.
The Guyana Relief Council (GRC) had visited the fire scene on Monday and offered temporary housing at its shelter to 37 persons (20 adults, 10 children and 7 babies), who were left homeless, according to GRC Secretary Nirmala Ramroop-ter Welle. In a release, she said that out of the 37, only nineteen persons opted to stay at the facility and they are presently being accommodated there. Affected persons who stay at the temporary shelter provided by the Council are provided with all the basic amenities during their stay. “Even though the GRC would be happy and willing to provide all the needs of persons affected, it is restrained by its limited resource,” the release added.
The GRC is therefore appealing to other agencies or members of the general public to contribute towards restoring the livelihood of those persons who suffered in the tragedy. Material support to the GRC may include, but are not limited to toiletries-soap, toilet paper, pampers, sanitary napkins; and cleaning agents-mops, buckets, clothing, kitchen utensils, etc. The Council also welcomes monetary contributions to aid in defraying related expenses.
Discount
Owner of Ming’s Products and Services Stanley Ming was also at the scene rendering assistance to the families yesterday. According to the businessman, on Monday night he collaborated with New Thriving to provide dinner for the victims, and yesterday he was able to get Ashmin’s Trading to give him a discount on all clothing items, which he purchased for the victims, as they lost everything in the fire. Ming related that he is catering to spend about half a million dollars in clothes items (school clothes included) for the children and mothers, who lived in the building. He said this is minus the food, which he will be providing for them for the next few days.
There were also persons stopping by to leave clothing and other items, as well as making monetary donations to the now homeless families. One woman was seen dropping off two large black bags filled with brand new mosquito nettings for the victims. Also present were Latchmin Punanall and her husband, Pastor Punanall of the Alliance For Change, who visited the scene, calculated the damage done, and left promising the victims to bring relief.
Ownership dispute
Theo Haywood, one of the residents, said he moved into the building in 2006, after his mother died. The man, in his twenties, said that he doesn’t know the whereabouts of his father. Another resident, Wesley (only name given), who has been living there for eight years, said he as well as his family [a baby included] had to sleep at the front of the building on the cold concrete. He disclosed that they had been paying a rent of $10,000 per month to a man named Sherwin Payne, who he said is the son of the former owner. However this came to a halt as Payne disappeared.
Cornette, who seems to be the one in charge, disclosed that Eric Phillips from the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) provided them with food yesterday morning. She was among the last persons to move into the building about three years ago. The others have all been living there for nine years and more.
Cornette recalled that the fire started in the kitchen on the middle floor, to the back of the building. This kitchen belonged to Samantha Harris, who is contending that she didn’t cook on the day of the fire.
Meanwhile, Cornette and some of the other tenants are alleging that the owner of the building Maurice Sukhoo “is not the owner,” while saying that he never showed them any papers to this effect. Cornette said that Sukhoo was constantly harassing them, posting eviction notices on the walls and telling them that they had to move. The angry tenant also stated that Sukhoo once offered to split $50,000 among them if they would leave. Once he even brought a notice from the City Council, which stated that they had to move but upon visiting City Council offices for verification, the officials there told them that Sukhoo was not the owner and they had not sent any such notice.
However, when questioned on the issue, Sukhoo stated that he bought the building from Yogindra Persaud Sharma, who resides in Canada. “If City Council told them I don’t own the building, then let them say who owns it because City Council records are not up to date. They are all squatters,” he said. In his defence, the man added that he wasn’t “forcing them out. They promised to leave when I was ready to demolish the building; some said they will go to Sophia.”
Sukhoo presented to this newspaper the transport for the building, which he had in his possession, as well as one of the eviction notices from the City Engineer’s Department and signed by Gregory Erskine. He said there needs to be a wakeup call for the “city fathers” to do something about such buildings, which pose many dangers.
He also said that he was waiting to take full possession of the place and they promised to leave when he was ready. He said that he even offered to assist them by giving them $50,000 each. He mentioned that his plan was to demolish the building and construct his own private dwelling, while adding that he has been living next door for forty-four years. Sukhoo also added that there are only about thirty-six persons living in the building as some had already moved prior to the fire.
When asked if he knew about the prescriptive rights application that Mayor Hamilton Green had alluded to on Monday [“…one gentleman claimed that he’s paid up all the taxes because he has a legal interest in it…”], Sukhoo said that the man, whose name is Kenrick Thomas was living in England and only came home to Guyana when his father died in the year 2000, and he started making claims to the property after he [Sukhoo] put up the transport advertisement. “He went and survey the land, without serving any notice to the squatters, and after that he went and drew up a plan [of the land] and got an affidavit which said that his father used to live there,” Sukhoo said. According to him, Thomas also got some of the residents to sign a document stating that they were living there for twelve years, but “none of them never lived there for twelve years.” As to Thomas, Sukhoo said that “he never lived there… he doesn’t even know what inside looks like, I can assure you that.”
