A newly purchased vehicle belonging to television reporter Travis Chase was destroyed in a fire that was deliberately set in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Chase, a reporter at HGP Nightly News and Executive Director of Adolphus Mining Incorporated, was on Monday morning awakened by the calls of a security guard, who informed him that his vehicle was on fire.
Chase told Stabroek News that he was asleep when he heard calls outside his home at around 2.45 am. The vehicle, which was parked in the compound of the Scholarships Division of the Ministry of Public Service, was said to be the only vehicle that was set ablaze. “I live a short distance away [and] when I ran over, my vehicle alone was set on fire,” Chase said.
According to Chase, the firefighters were alerted but took a noticeable amount of time to come to put out the fire. “[They took] quite a while… about 20 minutes,” he said.
Surveillance footage seen by this newspaper shows an individual setting something on fire and then throwing it onto the 2020 HONDA CRV owned by Chase. The explosion, however, caused extensive damage to a few vehicles that were parked in the ministry’s compound.
Neighbours in the area were also clueless as to what took place before they were awakened by the smoke from the fire.
Region Four (a) Commander Senior Superintendent Phillip Azore confirmed to this newspaper that an investigation is ongoing.
