The businesses on the ground floor of the four-storey building at Avenue of the Republic and America Street, which was ravaged by fire on Thursday, have resumed operations, while the investigation of what caused the blaze continues.
Most business owners and workers had been skeptical about being able to resume their operations immediately, since they were afraid that the ground floor was damaged beyond immediate repair.
However, when Stabroek News visited the building yesterday, most of the businesses were back in operation. Even the nearby bus park, which was moved from the immediate environs, also saw resumed operations.
The fire started around 11.30 on Thursday morning and burned through the second floor of the building. According to the owner, Rudat Persaud, the top three floors are mainly used as a storage bond and he had recently deposited containers of clothes and shoes. He estimated his losses in the tens of millions. He was unaware of what the origin of the fire could have been.
“Well to be honest, I never thought we woulda been able to use it back so fast ’cause of the fire. I thought they would block off the place and then wait till the investigation done then to let we back but I glad,” a store worker, who did not want to be named, told Stabroek News yesterday.
She said she was elated that the workers were able to resume their jobs as they would not have to worry about being on the “breadline.”
Another, who also did not want to be named, related that he was not surprised as only the second floor of the building sustained damage. “Well is they [firefighters] make we able to start back ’cause they contain the fire and keep it on the one floor. All that happen to we at [ground floor] is lil water damage but we were able to clean it up and everything was as it used to be. Everybody comfortable and just happy to be working again,” the man pointed out.
The bus operators and conductors were also happy that they were able to ply their business at their normal site again. “We just glad that we didn’t get move again ’cause it woulda been a whole other story, so we just happy,” one of the conductors related.
