A fire of unknown origin last night gutted a Charlotte Street home and left several homeless.
The fire which started just after 9:00 pm was contained to one structure as firefighters worked quickly to quell the blaze after responding. Acting Fire Chief Gregory Wickham told reporters on the scene last night that they received a call and were told that a building located at 147 Charlotte Street was on fire and responded with one tender.
Firefighters went into action using water from the tank supply during the initial firefighting process which was later supported by two other fire tenders. “That was supported by two other tenders where we managed to get the water from the South Road canal and then we did water relay and we were able to surround the fire and cut it off from spreading to any other structure within the area,” Wickham explained.
One of the residents of the structure which was destroyed said she believed that the fire was set by a person who reportedly lived in the same makeshift apartment structures. The woman noted that she was at her shop which is situated just at the entry way to the building when she saw persons running out of the yard shouting fire.
Prior to that the woman related to persons around that the suspect was seen leaving the yard with his belongings. She noted that she was unable to save any items in the fire.
Wickham while on the scene stated that he was very satisfied with the response and the firefighting procedures that were employed by those officers. It should be noted that the firefighters contained the fire to the one building and took just over an hour to quell the blaze. Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn who was also on the scene stated that there was a prompt response from the fire service and the situation was under control.
The fire chief told members of the media that while there are fire hydrants in the area, they used water from the tenders and the South Road canal. “There are hydrants around but we prefer going to the open canal where we will have copious amounts of water for firefighting, it is always better for us to have all the water we need than to think we may not be able to get that amount of supply coming from the hydrant,” he asserted.
While he noted that it was too soon to say what caused the fire, he mentioned that investigators will go through the debris and provide that information soon.
