A fire of unknown origin on Sunday night completely destroyed a two-storey wooden and concrete storage bond at Third Street, Alexander Village, Georgetown.
Ms Jagdeo (only name given), related to Stabroek News that she used the building as a storage bond to store imported household items and mainly clothes as she sells wholesale to other businesses. She said the bond did not have any electricity and so she believed that it must have been firecrackers. Sunday was Diwali and as usual firecrackers were ubiquitous. Jagdeo said neighbours told her that boys were playing with fire crackers in the street.
Fire Chief Gregory Wickham said that the building was completely destroyed along with its contents, while two other neighbouring homes were slightly damaged. He added that the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
Wickham said that the Fire Service received a call around 20:46 hrs on Sunday and tenders from the Central, Alberttown, West and Eccles stations responded. The four tenders arrived on the scene and the fire was prevented from spreading and badly damaging other neighbouring homes and extinguished.
Jagdeo, who does not live in the area, was unable to say exactly what happened. “I visited Alexander village around 8 pm on Sunday and left to go home… About 8:30 pm, I started to get calls about the fire. I called the Fire Service and was told they are on their way. We don’t have any idea about what exactly happened but it seems it was firecrackers… from what the neighbours are saying,” she said. “Also, they [neighbours] saw a small spark in front of the building, under the door which showed smoke then the fire started. There wasn’t any electrical connection that could have caused the fire since the building wasn’t powered with electricity.”
The businesswoman said she would wait on the Guyana Fire Service to determine the cause of the fire. She also could not say exactly how much she had lost, only that it was a substantial amount of money.
“I would import clothes and store it in the building and then distribute clothes to other businesses wholesale. There was also an extension to the building at the back and all the contents of the building and the building were destroyed,” she added.
Parbatie Kumar, who lives next door and keeps the building’s keys, told Stabroek News that someone alerted her and her uncle about a spark by the building’s door.
“I can’t say exactly what caused the fire but around 20:00 hrs and something on Sunday, my uncle and I carried our chairs on the bridge and were sitting when some boys who were sitting on a cart opposite us, asked us, if we decorated the house next door for Diwali, to which we said no,” she related. “When we both peeped over, we saw there was a spark coming from the home. I ran and took another peep at the home. I thought it was something minor at first but then the fire started to blaze suddenly. I would normally keep the keys for my family friend as the home is used as a storage bond to store items including clothes and people will come often to take items out of the bond and put items in. I tried using the keys to open the main gate of the property, to put the fire out but the gate wasn’t opening, so I started pounding on the gate to open it…
“With the use of a tub and a hose, my uncles started to wet the building while my sister called the Fire Service and other relatives…”
She added that she would like to commend the Fire Service for their quick response in putting the fire out.
Bobby Reid, another neighbour, said, “I woke up after hearing the commotion from neighbours to get water out of my yard. The fire started right in front of the door, downstairs of the storage bond. The fire started small and everybody started to throw buckets of water to put the fire out. By the time we called the Fire Service, the storage bond was already in flames. The Fire Service came and did a great job in putting the fire out.”
He said that the fire started around 20:20 hrs and when it started he tried to get his items out of his home with the help of his daughter. He added that he even put his uncle outside to sit in the corner of the road. He too said he was happy with the prompt response of the fire service.
