The scene of Tuesday’s Regent Street fire was yesterday transformed into a virtual ‘mine’ for scrap metal and other items considered valuable by persons even as the co-owner of one of the destroyed businesses buried his father who succumbed to a heart attack during the blaze.
Meantime, the Lucky Dollar furniture and home appliances store is today due to put on auction, a large quantity of items damaged by the blaze but thieves are already trying to enter the building.
Four stores in three buildings on the northern side of Regent Street between Camp and Alexander streets were gutted by fire last Tuesday morning leaving millions of dollars in losses and damage. The owner of Indra’s Fashions, Ramdat Shiwprasad, 65, collapsed at the scene and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. He was yesterday cremated at the Good Hope foreshore even as his family contemplates future plans.
The Guyana Fire Service has concluded their investigations into the fire and confirmed that the fire was electrical in origin and started in the living quarters of Chinese nationals who were renting a section of a duplex owned by Claire and Anthony Pires.
Yesterday when this newspaper revisited the scene, several persons had rushed there as the barricades were removed. Many were scouring for items they felt were worthy of selling and these ranged from burnt lotions to metals and steel once used as grillwork.
One man tried to scale the Lucky Dollar fence and was attempting to break into the store.
The guards from the RK’s Security Service said that their work was cut out for them as “mostly junkies” saw the destroyed windows of the building as an opening to steal items despite the over 10 feet high fence reinforced with barbed wire.
Today the public will be given the opportunity to bid on items from the store on an “As is, Where is” basis.
