With the investigation still underway to determine the cause of the fire that gutted a business place and a house at Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara on Thursday, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) yesterday renewed its call for home owners to equip their properties with fire prevention and detection mechanisms.
“The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) continues to encourage citizens to equip their homes with smoke detectors and fire extinguishers and to adhere to safety measures in order to protect their homes and loved ones from fire emergencies,” the GFS said in a statement yesterday.
According to the fire service, the fire started in the lower flat of the building, which housed BR&T Paint and Hardware Store and the radiated heat subsequently ignited the top floor of the building and spread across the neigbouring building, which was a home. In that building the entire top floor was destroyed and the bottom floor sustained water damage.
From all indications, the buildings did not have any fire prevention or detection mechanisms.
The GFS said three fire tenders responded to the call on Thursday.
The buildings were owned by Lenox Reid and Bibi Reid, who reside in the United States.
The fire, in addition to des-troying the building, destroyed millions worth of goods belonging to BR&T Paint Store, L&M Reid and Sons Hardware Store and T&S Reid Sale Industry, which were housed on the bottom flat of the building that first caught on fire.
Meanwhile, the fire service said the house which caught on fire was occupied at the time by the owners’ son, Rommel Reid, and three other family members.
Tamika Braithwaite, who resides next to the buildings that were engulfed, had explained that she first noticed black smoke and ran back inside to see if she could save anything. “But I heard some explosion started going on in both houses. My house too was filled with black smoke and I just grab my important documents and run out”.
Her mother had earlier related to Stabroek News that she was on the road when she observed the smoke from her street. The woman said she ran back home and saw that the building which housed the paint shop had “thick black smoke.”
“So I run upstairs and collect my sister suitcase because she only come in the country yesterday (Wednesday) and I told my daughter (Tamika) collect she important document and run out the house,” the woman added.
Braithwaite said that the fire service responded promptly and by time she got out of her house, they were already on the scene. “I think they did a good job because it would have been everything because when I saw how thick the smoke was and the fire, I said that was it, everything has gone up in flames,” she said with gratitude.
