A Timehri supermarket owner, his family and his employees are now devastated after an early morning fire ravaged the business yesterday.
The fire, which occurred around 3:00 am yesterday, has left Ravindra Kalnarine aka ‘Churchill’, owner of Churchill’s Supermarket and Variety Store with significant losses.
Recounting the incident to Stabroek News (SN), the man’s daughter, Gauri noted that she and her mother locked up the Base Road Timehri business on Tuesday night and the family of three retired to bed. She said that she was awakened around 3:00 am to the sound of banging on their gate and her neighbours shouting. Upon coming out of her room she noticed a lot of smoke in the house and immediately realized what was going on.
Gauri related that she quickly roused her parents and she and her mom helped Ravindra, who is recovering from a stroke, out of the house. The 23-year-old noted that the fire service, which was summoned by the neighbours shortly after the blaze was discovered, arrived at the scene about twenty minutes later.
“I smell something me ain’t know like if is kero, or gas, or something or if is the Jeyes fluid they mix up, smelling like that. Something di smelling high high and then me run upstairs and ask me daughter… me thought was over deh (the opposite direction) because them man went wukking over there… and then by time I go back and lie down she seh ‘fire’. Then we (husband and I) go and call for them [and] ‘bram down’ the gate,” Churchill’s sister, Sherry Singh, who lives next door to the supermarket, recalled.
Singh also added that the fire service initially ran out of water whilst trying to contain the blaze but were able to connect with the river aback the houses and recommence their work. When this newspaper arrived on the scene, firefighters were still extinguishing pockets of flames from the already demolished store.
Akeem King, one of the subordinate officers on site, told SN that the Timehri Fire Service responded about one minute after receiving the call and two vehicles arrived, five minutes apart, sometime after 4 am, but by that time the entire supermarket was ablaze. King noted that though they were unable to salvage any part of the building, firefighters managed to save the surrounding houses, including Churchill’s home which is attached to the back of the supermarket.
According to Gauri, the uninsured business began as a small shop which her parents opened when she was a baby, and it gradually grew into what it was just before the fire. Up to the time of the fire, the supermarket and variety store had approximately 10 to 15 individuals in its employ. She added that the supermarket came into being about five years ago.
Not only are the employees and the owners suffering from the loss due to the fire, but members of the Base Road community are lamenting the fact that they will now have to shop elsewhere and possibly spend more on items which the supermarket sold at the lowest prices possible.
Fire Chief, Gregory Wickham estimated that answers on the cause of the fire would be available sometime today.
In a statement last night, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) said that at 04:28 am yesterday, the Fire Service was alerted to the fire at Track ‘K’ Hyde Park, Timehri.
Water Tender #109 and Water Carrier #16, along with ten firefighters from the Timehri Fire Station, were immediately dispatched to the scene, it said.
The fire service said that radiated heat from the building of origin caused a quantity of polyvinyl chloride ceiling, a wooden panel door, three sash windows, and some paint work all on the first floor of Kalnarine’s house to be destroyed.
One jet from Light Pump #125 operating from an open water source, one jet from water tender #109 tank supply, and one jet from water carrier #16 tank supply were used to quell the fire.
Fire prevention officials are currently investigating what caused the fire.
