A huge fire on Republic Avenue, Linden yesterday destroyed a building housing two stores and severely damaged the Regional Democratic Council’s (RDC) offices as well as a bar, leaving millions in losses.
The origin of the fire in Linden’s commercial area has not yet been determined. It destroyed the town’s Digicel outlet and a garment store housed in the two-storey structure. Fire-fighters and residents worked together to avert major damage to several other buildings threatened by the flames.
The fire started at around 1 pm. The Digicel outlet and the garment store were located in the lower flat of the two- storey building. It is not clear what triggered the blaze. Half of the top flat of the building was also rented to the owners of the garment store who used it as a bond while the other half was home to the caretaker, Selwyn Lancaster.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene, the building that housed the Digicel outlet had already been destroyed and massive damage had been done to the RDC building. The RDC building is next to the Digicel Store while what was once the Blair’s Delights restaurant but is now Tom’s Beverage & Bar, was also affected. The Works, Personnel and the Registry Departments in the upper flat of the RDC building were extensively damaged by water while the windows were shattered by the heat and persons who worked to save the building.
Workers, most of whom were still in their church clothes, scrambled frantically to save valuable documents and equipment from the building. Most persons were adamant that they would have been able to save the RDC building. Finally, the winds changed direction and the building was saved.
A distraught Lancaster told Stabroek News that he was on his way home when he noticed the heavy smoke coming from the back of Krescent Foods Inc, located nearby. “I just coming back from buying chicken at Church’s down the road when I see the heavy smoke and decided to rush to the building because I know that behind Krescent is we,” he said. Lancaster recounted that by the time he got to the building, the fire was raging in the upper section rented to the garment store. “When I got there we couldn’t get in there because the fire was intense and in there was a mass ah confusion,”
he said.
Lancaster recalled that persons at the scene broke into the building and attempted to save a few items from his apartment. “Venus place (the garment store) had every little thing you could think about and we hardly saved anything,” he said.
It was a chaotic scene on Republic Avenue as hundreds 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.
The effort of the Fire Service came in for much criticism for the “slothful” manner in
which they executed their duties: an insufficient water supply was their major challenge. However, persons praised the Bosai safety officers whose efforts contributed greatly to bringing the flames under control. “Any time they got a major fire in dis place is Bosai does got to come to dem rescue and imagine they got two fire truck and the river deh right over the road deh and still is hell-o-hell for them to do a commendable job and in a timely manner,” commented one resident as several others supported the statement.
The work of the fire-fighters was not made easy by the afternoon breeze which fanned the flames 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 which formerly housed one of the first and prominent private business places at Mackenzie – Venus General Store – quickly devoured by the fire. This catastrophe coming soon after the destruction of the Christianburg Magistrate’s Court also by fire, was
too much for some of the onlookers.
Meantime, on Co-op Crescent- the area behind the flaming building, persons and fire-fighters dashed to save the Krescent Foods Inc. This was successful because at the end of the day, only the back wall of the two- storey building was scorched but the groceries stored in that section were extensively damaged.
The garment store and the
Digicel outlet suffered the worst as they were unable to save anything. Minibus conductors and drivers who were some of the first to arrive at the scene, said that had they received the blessings of the police, they would have been able to save most, if not all, of the stuff from both Digicel and the garment store.
One man said that he and a few others who were well known to the police pleaded with the officers to permit them to break the building but were denied permission. “They were right here to look over us… we could have break that place and save so much without anyone stealing anything,” the man
said. He added that they were told that permission had to be granted by the Fire Service.
