Losses in excess of $100M and counting

Oct 11, 2009 News

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(By Mondale Smith and Brushell Blackman)
The losses from Friday night’s Regent Street blaze are believed to be in excess of $100 M and while Shaheed Hamid and family are aggrieved, the man says that he will be retaining his staff “to do other things.”
Yesterday, he met with Fire Chief Marlon Gentle.
At the site, both he and his wife who owned the adjoining boutique were at the scene and on occasions would be embraced by various other business owners. One business man was heard saying to Hamid that whatever he wanted by way of assistance he should not be afraid to say and he will get it.
Hamid was also heard telling a curious friend that “(the fire) started from the electric wire and run to the building…is electrical.”
The only house destroyed by the fire was a 142 Regent Street cottage aback of the DM Beauty World building. Owned by pensioner, Rudolph Montouth, 68, the cottage was hemmed in by the extensively long Household Plus Building and DM sales.
The elderly man was a few doors away when he got the news that fire was near his home. Standing on Regent Street he recalled, “When I get here the whole place was in flames and I couldn’t go in.”
He was not sure that his house was destroyed and when it was confirmed he said, “If that is the case then everything I own gone.” Yesterday neighbours could not pinpoint his whereabouts but he has sought temporary abode with relatives.
Meanwhile, another pensioner, Iris Lee, 79, who owned the house at the front of the lot is also staying with relatives after her home was partly destroyed by the fire. She was at home when the residents raised the alarm.
She was at first reluctant to leave her building. However, according to reports, when the heat from the burning DM Beauty World building became too much for her she was evacuated. The eastern wall of her house was scorched while part of the roof was destroyed as well as most of the windows to her house.
The house also has extensive water damage and from the look of things yesterday, it remains uninhabitable until repairs are executed.
While the criticisms were few, the praises for the police and the fire service ranks are many for a job that some dubbed as ‘real police and fire service work.’ The general contention was that they were mostly efficient in staving off major looting and against the breeze to save the rest of the block from going up in flames.

Fire victim forced
to stay at hotel
Although Susan D’ Anjou’s house was not destroyed, but scorched by the inferno, the water damage to her furniture, bed and other essential household items has forced her to “put up” at a hotel for now.
On the day of the fire she was washing at home when she noticed plumes of smoke emanating from the DM Sales Beauty Store. The woman who shares the home with her two daughters and a cousin, said “I am grateful to a friend, who paid for me to stay at the hotel”.
Lamenting the cost of the hotel services, she said she may be staying at an uncle if she decides against staying at the hotel for another night. The woman, who has been living at the Regent Street address for over 20 years, is grateful to the fire service and public spirited citizens for saving her house.
When the fire threatened, two staffers at the Dr. Nicholas McLean Animal Hospital evacuated eight dogs and a cat that were in their care. Those were transported to the GSPCA and were yesterday returned to the hospital location.
“Kathryn McLean, the hospital owner’s wife, amidst pointing to the water damage and the scorched wall of the hospital said “God is good; we didn’t lose much to the fire and thanks to the police we had no looting. The animals are little shaken but they are okay.”
As persons assisted in sweeping and cleaning her building she noted that as a result of the fire the hospital is out of electricity, water and telephone service; basic necessities to continue work. It will remain closed until next week.
She says minor repairs will have to be done to the building which is insured.
She noted that Christopher Perkins, a technician, not only evacuated the animals from the hospital but went back to the scene and joined in fighting the fire. He injured his shoulder while climbing atop the hospital roof with the fire service water hose and fought off the flames that were threatening to engulf the hospital building.
As the fire blazed on Friday night Perkins recounted: “I started helping two firemen and one ask me if I know how to handle the hose and as soon as I say ‘yes they disappear and left me alone with it.”
With no other choice and determination to saved the building, he temporarily dropped the hose and sought help from a lad. “I take off me jersey and soak he skin with the hose and we start dousing the flames.

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