Five weeks later, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) is yet to determine the cause of the blaze at the Ramada Princess Hotel and Casino at Providence that saw dramatic rescues and some guests fleeing from balconies using sheets tied together.
The fire occurred on September 24th and on Tuesday, Fire Chief Gregory Wickham told Stabroek News that the origin is yet to be determined.
“As we went through the rubble, our investigative team went through and did their work and we are not able at this time to come up with a cause of the fire. So, we are still continuing our investigative work”, Wickham said.
When questioned as to whether anything at this time is hindering the investigation, the Fire Chief replied in the negative.
“It’s just the regular thing that we will do because we want to be very careful, as usual, to ensure that we have the right investigation done and the report must reflect the real situation that caused the fire”, he said.
On the night of the fire, 13 persons had to be rescued after a fire broke out on the fourth floor of the hotel, which saw firefighters sustaining minor injuries and one guest suffering from smoke inhalation. According to the GFS, the fire appeared to have started in room 431. The six-storey building has some 194 rooms along with a casino, which is located at the southern side of the structure. There were 293 adults and 4 children registered as guests at the hotel at the time.
Lead Fire Investigator and Fire Prevention Officer, Sheldon Sauns, related that the GFS responded with 28 firefighters and five tenders, which included the hydraulic platform, some 10 minutes after receiving the emergency call. Smoke was observed from the eastern side of the building, which triggered the fire alarm and sprinkler systems. Sauns explained that the fire had to be fought from all directions while catering for a full evacuation. Along with the building’s water source, firefighters also used the hotel’s pool. Sauns said that the room where the fire started was completely gutted while other rooms were scorched.
Some guests detailed that they were forced to escape via the room’s balcony with the use of bedsheets tied together.
When asked of the hotel’s fire escape protocol, which required the GFS’s approval, Wickham said that he was not aware of any person having to jump [from balconies] but admitted that some guests had to be rescued beyond the normal fire escape route.
“Well, I’m not aware of that. I know when we got there, we had to rescue persons from the sixth and fourth floors but I’m not certain persons had to jump via windows. We had to do some shattering of partition walls but I’m not certain of anyone escaping through windows”, he said.
On the question of fire escape routes, the Fire Chief said that there were adequate fire escape routes but these could not be accessed because of where the fire was. “Yes, they had fire escape routes but where the fire was in that particular geographic space that was hampering persons from the fire escape area that was available.” The Princess Hotel temporarily closed its operations following the incident but reopened shortly after.
The GFS on October 19th said that in keeping with its ongoing efforts to educate the public and raise awareness about fire safety and prevention, it has resumed inspections of hotels, restaurants and bars across the country.
