An early morning fire, suspected to be an act of arson, yesterday destroyed the upper part of a building at Wismar, Linden which housed the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) office.
Reports are that the fire, which started around 1.55 am, gutted the wooden structure which is situated at Burnham Drive, First Alley, Wismar, Linden within an hour.
GECOM’s office was situated in the top flat of the building while the lower flat was unoccupied. Nothing was saved.
Stabroek News was informed that a female security guard was in the guard hut which is situated at the front of the building when she heard an explosion.
As a result, the woman ventured to the back of the building and upon checking she saw two men fleeing the scene.
An alarm was raised and the Guyana Fire Service was summoned. Quick action by fire-fighters prevented the fire from spreading.
Police Commander of Region 10, Hugh Winter yesterday told Stabroek News that an investigation has since been launched by the police.
“We are still investigating….we got to see if whether or not we have any footage or whatever the case maybe around the place,” he said.
No arrest has yet been made.
The fire occurred just one day after de facto Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan said that the Disciplined Services and citizens have been urged to “keep an eye out” for potential arsonists.
Ramjattan made this call while he was responding to questions asked at a press conference on Monday.
“….We have asked all disciplined forces and we are also asking members of the public to have an eye out on all of these mischief makers who they can then inform the police about, as that can help,” he said.
“We just cannot have our four, five thousand policemen all across the country just looking after public infrastructure. That requires the help of the citizenry too and whatever information that the citizenry has in relation to potential arson, potential destruction of buildings, malicious damage to property. We would like to hear from them,” Ramjattan added.
He stated that Joint Services have been on “high alert” since the March 2nd elections.
“….The actual security forces are on high alert and they have been so since elections time. Elections have not been completed, we are almost there and so to that extent then we would just urge members of the public to help in that regard,” he said.
As of recent, there has been an increase of fires at public buildings.
Just yesterday morning, attempts were made to destroy two other public buildings – an unoccupied Army Base of the Second Infantry Battalion, Maria’s Lodge, Essequibo and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) office at Anna Regina, Essequibo.
On Sunday morning, an attempt was also made to set fire to the cultural landmark, the Umana Yana at Kingston.
