The Umana Yana, the historic benab that served as a leading centre for cultural events in the city, which was destroyed by fire on September 9, was up to date in its state of fire preparedness, according to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Alfred King.
King said that the building, like all other public buildings is inspected on a yearly basis, and extra emphasis is placed on those buildings utilised frequently by members of the public. He added that his ministry is always on top of the inspections conducted by the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) and the Umana Yana had 6 fully functioning fire extinguishers that were recently upgraded.
King said the Fire Service has not yet made a conclusive statement on the cause of the fire, but reminded that the preliminary assessment indicated that it was of electrical origin.
Speaking of reconstruction, he revealed that there is ongoing discussion about the matter and that the 2 weeks to gather estimates of the cost to rebuild, as indicated by Minister Frank Anthony, had not expired. He further mentioned that work to gather the estimates for the construction that can be undertaken by regular folks has progressed but the thatching of the roof require members of the Wai Wai tribe to come and work towards this end is yet to be done.
The Kingston building, which was built by Amerindians in 1972, was ravaged within a matter of minutes despite attempts by the GFS to save it. The fire service had received a phone call at 3.29 pm informing it of the fire, according to the officer-in-charge of operations Compton Sparman, who said three fire tenders were subsequently dispatched to the scene. He added that upon arrival, the firefighters observed that the entire structure was engulfed in flames but did their utmost to contain the blaze.
