A Canefield businessman and his family are now left to pick up the pieces after a fire which reportedly spread from a neighbour’s garbage heap completely destroyed his premises which housed his furniture business, bond and all of his household items that he acquired in the last thirty-five years.
Deodat Tickchand, 52, of Lot 61 West Canefield Settlement, East Canje Berbice, resided at the location with his brothers, sister and her two grandsons. The lot has two structures, the front one was a wooden, two-storey house which was completely furnished and housed the furniture business, while the back structure is a concrete building and served as a bond for the business.
According to the man, just after 10 pm on Wednesday, his sister, who recently returned from overseas, noticed the fire at the back of the building where there was wood packed and woke him up. “Me sister tell me let me come out and see wah a go on and when me come out me a see the fire but me can’t really control nothing because when me come down the fire come from that end because it look like them people (neighbour) light rubbish over deh and the fire like it crawl over and start catch.”
According to Tickchand, there was a large quantity of wood in his yard which was recently purchased to build furniture for customers who would have placed their orders for the upcoming holiday period.
“Them people light rubbish …and by the dry weather like the fire move and come straight where the wood deh.”
The fire completely destroyed the first building in Tickchand’s yard causing it to collapse and destroyed all of the contents in the second building which including over fifty pieces of furniture built for customers. However, since the second building was concrete the structure remained while the roof and other wooden parts were destroyed.
On Wednesday night, Tickchand sat with his siblings and watched as the fire ravaged the buildings and destroyed everything they have worked over the last thirty-five years to build.
In addition to the house being fully furnished and modernized, Tickchand said, he had a number of new machines which were recently ordered for his business – all of which were destroyed in the fire.
“Me had plenty thing there, drums full with thinner, furniture (already built) plenty and me was to move them and carry them across the other building but then me na end up move am and all burn out, new machine wah recently come in, all thing went there”, he said.
The Tickchands are well known throughout the Canje community and residents came out in their numbers on Wednesday evening to lend their support. The family is known to have built their way up from hard times – while Deodat operated his furniture business, his brother operates a grocery store at a different location in Canefield.
All of the siblings on Wednesday evening stood in an emotional state watching the fire as they tried their best to console each other.
Meanwhile, Tickchand and residents relayed to Stabroek News that the Guyana Fire Service took over one hour to respond and they believe had this not been the case then the fire could have been controlled before it spread throughout the buildings.
On Wednesday night also hampering the fire service’s efforts was the fact that both hoses they attempted to use to quell the fire were riddled with holes reducing the water pressure and ultimately wasting the water.
Tickchand yesterday stressed that he greatly appreciated the overall efforts of the fire-fighters on the ground but he said that he believes that had they responded in a timely manner the situation could have been different. “Them tek long, them tek one good time, if them been reach in time they would a catch the fire at the back there and it won’t a come pon the house here”, he said.
Residents also lamented the situation with the fire service and one neighbour said she spent about one hour on the phone trying to get the fire service to respond. After noticing the hose leaking one resident said, “This a wah? This a wah?”
