Fire this afternoon completely destroyed a building that housed the Digicel store on Republic Avenue, Linden while badly damaging the Regional Democratic Council building.
Several other buildings were threatened including the Linden Museum but the fire was later brought under control.
At around 1 pm the fire started in the building that houses Digicel in the lower flat of the two- storey structure. It is not clear what triggered the blaze. The top flat of the building, which once housed the Venus General Store, had one occupant.
It was a chaotic scene on Republic Avenue this afternoon as a sea of Lindeners left their Mother’s Day celebrations to converge on the area even as the fire-fighters from the Linden fire service aided by the bauxite firm, Bosai battled the intense blaze. Their work was not made easy by the afternoon breeze which fanned the blaze and saw buildings at the side and at the back of the Digicel store being affected.
Shock and awe were evident on the faces of those gathered there as they observed that the building that houses the historic museum on Co-op Crescent Road being scorched even as the firemen battled the blaze. This catastrophe coming soon after the destruction of the Christianburg Magistrate’s Court by fire was obviously too much for some of the onlookers.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene the building that housed the Digicel building was already destroyed and massive damage had been done to the RDC building even though the blaze was contained. The RDC building is on one side of the Digicel Store while what was once the Blair’s Delights restaurant but now Tom’s Beverage & Bar was also affected. At the back the burnt building on Co-op Crescent, the museum and another building, Crescent Road’s Incorporated, were also affected by the blaze.
