Latest update April 4th, 2025 12:14 AM
Fire destroys Hadfield Street guest house, Car Care Enterprise
Fire Chief says arsonist responsible
By Rabindra Rooplall
A disputed property that was being used as a guest house at 42 Hadfield Street, Werk-en-Rust was destroyed during the wee hours of Friday morning.
Car Care Enterprise which is located adjacent to the building was also damaged as the fire attacked the third floor of the building. There a huge stock of tires was destroyed while a fire tender with a hydraulic platform ladder was used to douse the flames.
Firemen try to contain the fire that was out of control
Two women were injured; one was identified as Tiffany Collins and another as 17-year old Shelly Hope. They were both taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Ms Hope sustained burns to her chest and hand, and is currently at the Burns Care unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The fire erupted at 1:45 am Friday at the centre of the two-flat wooden and concrete building, while the Fire Service responded promptly and tried to contain the fire from spreading to neighbouring buildings, one of which houses Car Care Enterprise. However, the fire quickly razed the guest house and also caught onto the auto supplies building.
Occupants of a house aback of Car Care Enterprise were evacuated along with other persons in the vicinity. They were only allowed to return to their home after the conflagration was under control.
Fire Chief, Marlon Gentle said that from statements gathered it is clear that the fire was started as a result of an arsonist throwing a flammable object into the building.
He said someone was seen running from the building after there was a loud explosion. The ensuing blazed eventually razed the building, which had some eight rooms inside.
Residents in the area said they believed that a car pulled up and someone apparently hurled a combustible object into the building.
According to the caretaker of the building who identified herself as “Sunita, known as Belle,” after retiring to bed at 21:00hrs Thursday night, she was aroused by a loud noise and after getting up she noticed lots of smoke and that a bright glaring light was spreading quickly around the building.
The distressed woman said that she lived in a part of the middle and upper flat, and at the time of the fire she was in the middle.
Adding that she would normally lock the grills that secured the entrance to the building, she said, “My children were awake, so I run to the back and when I run there it was too hot for me. Then I realise that the heat was coming from the top. I run down back the steps and my children managed to get the grill opened and that is how we came out but we couldn’t have saved anything because the entire place was already in thick smoke and I couldn’t see anything. It was dark.”
Underscoring that the fire started from the upper flat, Sunita said there were many different rooms that were being rented and she could not recall if anyone was seriously injured since all the persons in the building managed to escape.
She has been occupying the building for the last ten years. She said that years ago there was a fire and last April there was also another. “This is children property and because of the dispute of the property there were many attempts to burn it….This is the third time that the building was attacked.”
One of the many tenants of the building, Patrick Ramasar, who is a security guard at an electronic store on Regent Street said, “I lost a lot of things in there. All I got now is the clothes I got on; everything gone.”
One of the injured women at the Georgetown Public Hospital on the night of the fire.
One man who said the property is at the centre of a bitter legal dispute, and who identified himself as Llewellyn Johnson, said that ever since his father passed away in 1989, there has been a dispute as to who should own the property among the brothers. The matter has been before the court for the past ten years.
Johnson said that one of the brothers forged signatures and attempted to sell the property twice.
“This time they succeed in burning down the building; they try twice before and didn’t get through.”
According to representatives of Car Care enterprise, millions were lost because of the fire.
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