A stall on Bourda Green was damaged by fire on Saturday night, the second time in months that the owner has been hit by suspected arson.
A major disaster was averted after the Guyana Fire Service responded promptly and contained the blaze at the G Bacchus stall.
It was a distraught Goolmohamed Rahaman, owner of the stall, Stabroek News found yesterday sitting in a chair outside of the damaged structure as workers went through the ruined items and tried to salvage a few.
“What ain’t get damage by fire get damage by water,” the man told this newspaper as he surveyed the damage.
This blaze, which started after 11 pm on Saturday came just months after the man’s store, G Bacchus Enterprises at the former MFK Trading building on Hadfield Street, was badly damaged by fire. It is another major setback for the businessman. He said he would have suffered about $10M in losses at the stall.
The man said he is convinced that the fire was deliberately set as the smell of gasoline was evident just after the fire erupted and workers who responded to the report of fire saw evidence that some mischief was afoot. He showed this newspaper a section of a thin pan which he said was slipped under the shutter and the grill. The man surmised that gasoline was then poured into the pan and while some ran into the stall some also ran on the outside wall of the stall. The man said that the arsonist(s) “scratch a match and throw it and fire catch on the inside and the outside”. The man’s flammable items such as baby pampers that were hanging on the inside of the grill at the front of the stall, quickly aided the fire and most of the goods in the front section of the stall were destroyed. Those he had in boxes in the store room were damaged by the water used to quell the flame.
“This fire was deliberately set, I say is arson because we see the evidence, this is the evidence,” the man said as he held up the pan and then demonstrated how he believed the fire was started. He said that he got a call at around 11:15 pm informing him that the stall was on fire and he said he was not at home but he sent down his workers to check. When they arrived the firemen were already on the scene and the workers quickly opened the stall and the blaze was shortly after put out.
Initially when asked who he thought might be responsible for the fire the man said he had no clue since as far as he knows he had no problem with anyone.
However, the man later said he suspected a man he had a business transaction with and he said he hopes that the police could issue a wanted bulletin for this individual since he cannot be located.
He explained that he had conducted the business transaction with the individual but after he had paid the agreed price and “the papers done write up and so on then he come and demand more money from me.” The man said he refused to pay any additional sum since as far as he was concerned the business transaction was over.
This apparently angered the man and according to Rahaman he started receiving threatening phone calls and at one time there was even a reported plot to harm one of his two sons. He said when his Hadfield Street building was damaged by fire he told the police who he suspected and provided them with additional information but as far as he knows the man cannot be found. The fire on Hadfield Street had been listed as suspicious.
“Then last night after I get the call about the fire I get another call and a man on the other end tell me that ‘we bun you stall we coming to you home for you and you children next”, Rahaman told this newspaper.
He said that is one of the reasons he did not go down to stall as his wife and grandchildren were home alone at the time. He hopes that with this recent incident that the individual would be arrested because he is scared for his life and that of his family.
“I don’t trouble no one, I just here doing my business,” the man lamented.
The fire at Hadfield Street occurred on the night of May 26 and based on information received by this newspaper an explosion was heard some time after eight that night and smoke was noticed coming from the back of the
bottom flat.
Rahaman had told the newspaper that it was painful to see $400 million in stock reduced to ashes. He said that he began the process of building the outlet in 2010 and paid the last installment on it in February of this year.
He had said that he opened a supermarket on the bottom flat and an electrical store on the second floor in late 2010. The other two floors were being used for storage.
At the time of the fire he and his entire family had left their Georgetown home for Corentyne, Berbice to celebrate his granddaughter’s birthday.
Yesterday the man said that he has been unable to reopen the supermarket as work is still ongoing to fix the damage caused by the fire. There was extensive damage to the interior of the building. Now he said it would take weeks before he can reopen his Bourda stall as the damage would have to be fixed, the electrical wiring would have to be redone and it would have to be repainted.
“I have to open back, what can I do? This is my livelihood I just want the police to get this man. They could put something in the newspaper or something and say he wanted for arson,” the distraught man suggested.
