Over 100 vehicles were destroyed when the popular Akbar Hussein Auto Sales at Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara went up in flames around midday yesterday.
Also lost in the fire were furniture and equipment and the total losses were estimated in the hundreds of millions.
Reports are that the fire started around 12:30 pm in one of the vehicles in the bond, before it spread quickly to the others and to the nearby furniture factory. There were also reports that the fire actually started in the factory.
The owners, Munaf ‘Salim’ Hussein and Rahala, whose house is located in front of the furniture factory, looked on helplessly at the devastation.
As the two fire tenders from the Guyana Fire Service and one from GuySuCo worked diligently to bring the fire under control, small fires were seen starting intermittently from some of the vehicles and from sections of the building. The firefighters accessed water from a nearby trench.
Hussein was grateful for the effort they made in bringing the fire under control. He was not sure how the fire started but recalled that persons would burn the vegetation on an empty plot of land nearby. The fire would get out of control and he called the fire tender on more than one occasion to put it out, he said.
When the fire started, workers were away on lunch. Neighbours saw the flames and alerted the family. A woman said she was asleep when she was awakened to a loud explosion. She looked over to the Hussein’s premises and saw a vehicle in flames. The fire quickly got out of control.
Hussein told Stabroek News that he was at the mosque for the Friday rayers at the time the fire started.
He said the bond, which extended several feet away to the back, had about 100 vehicles; between 30 and 40 were new vehicles and the others were repossessed vehicles. He could not say if all of the vehicles were insured.
The firefighters had to break parts of a huge concrete fence to gain access to some of the vehicles. Sections of a large shed also collapsed.
The factory, Hussein said, was well-stocked with furniture as he prepared to cater for the Christmas season.
When this newspaper arrived at the scene, a large crowd had gathered. The police were trying to control traffic as curious passers-by slowed to take a look at the devastation.
Customers who purchased new vehicles and whose vehicles had been repossessed were also present lamenting their losses. Charles Joseph, of Mahaicony, told this newspaper that he had purchased a minibus that had just come off the wharf. The bus was brought to the bond to be cleaned up and he was told to go after lunch yesterday. He also brought a new battery for the bus. But when he arrived at the scene yesterday, he was shocked at the tragedy. He was also distressed about “how long it would take to get another bus.”
