A property owner has been left counting millions in losses after his two-storey building at Lot 2 Barnwell Public Road, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) was destroyed by fire on Thursday.
Vickram Ramai who resides in Tuschen New Housing Scheme, Esse-quibo, told Stabroek News that he received a phone call around 7:20 pm informing him that his building was on fire, He rents the building to Chinese nationals who run a supermarket at the bottom flat and occupy the top flat of the building.
“At the time when I constructed the building it cost 30 million dollars.” he disclosed that when he went to insure the building, both of the insurance companies that he visited refused to give him insurance since he was renting to Chinese.
Ramai is now counting his losses as he spent over two years constructing the building without taking out a mortgage. “Today I am losing so much, but I guess that’s how life is sometimes,” he lamented. He said that his tenants also suffered losses noting that “it takes about 60 or 70 million to stock one of these supermarkets.”
According to Ramai, persons who gathered at the site looted the burning building. “I was in shock” a disappointed Ramai said, “the people that are supposed to help decided to loot.” He said he was told that when the building began to burn, his tenant, Rong Cheng, asked two persons who were in the building at the time to help her with the fire extinguishers and they refused.
Rong Chen, also known as Aria, who runs the supermarket at the bottom flat of the building spoke with Stabroek News. Fighting back tears, she said “I lost everything. My money, my clothes, my passport.” She is yet to fully calculate her losses as she still coming to grips with her new reality. “All my things lost. This is not my fault; nobody cook or light anything, I had no chance to go collect anything all my money, everything burn up.”
According to the Guy-ana Fire Service (GFS), preliminary investigations indicated that the fire started when gas from a leaking propane cylinder came into contact with naked flames, igniting nearby combustible materials and spreading throughout the building.
The GFS said that on June 27, 2024, at approximately 19:22 hrs, the Fire Service received a call reporting a blaze at Lot 2 Barnwell. Firefighters arrived on the scene at 19:50 hrs – 28 minutes later – with the first jet deployed at 19:51 hrs.
The response included water tenders 81 and 84, along with crews led by Station Officer (ag) Bowen, Leading Fireman Manjet, and six other firefighters. A total of 9,274 liters of water was utilized in the firefighting efforts.
The affected structure was a two-floor timber and concrete building. The GFS said it was occupied by Aria Chen, 29, and owned by Vickram Ramai, 47, of Lot 198 Block ‘A’ Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo. “Unfortunately, the building and its contents were completely destroyed, rendering one person homeless”, it said.
The fire was extinguished using one jet from water tender #84, two jets from Light Pump #A06, and one jet from water tender #81 operating from an open water source, the GFS added.
