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Business owners, Guyana Fire Service square off
Insurance officials gathered at the scene yesterday.
(By: Brushell Blackman)
A day after five businesses were razed by fire on Regent Street, business owners berated the efforts of the Guyana Fire Service on the morning of the fire. The businesses that were housed in three buildings are Household plus, where the fire started, Fullworths Variety Store, Chino Variety Store, Wireless Connections and Slim Jet.
Aside from a few items that were saved by Wireless Connections, everything else was destroyed in the buildings, leaving an estimated $100M in losses.
The business owners who gathered at the scene yesterday morning were livid over the way the Guyana Fire Service executed their duties on the morning of the inferno.
Sudika Vieira, who operated a curtain store inside the Fullworths building, said that her business and the others could have been saved if the fire service had responded with adequate water in the tenders.
She told Kaieteur News that it was close to forty-five minutes after the outbreak that Fullworths Variety Store, where her business was located, became engulfed. She said what was even more reprehensible was the fact that an empty lot separated Household Plus from the Fullworths Variety store and still the latter was destroyed.
“I kept shouting at them to spray water on this building (pointing to the burnt out Fullworths variety store) but the pressure was very low, it was like somebody was urinating on the fire.”
The woman was adamant that the fire was not electrical in origin, but she could not say how it may have started.
Vieira said that all the hoses used during the fire-fighting operation were leaking in numerous places.
Vieira was irate at the statement made by Fire Chief Marlon Gentle that the fire service would normally do an assessment of a fire when they arrive on a scene, and then take actions after.
“Could you imagine he is saying that they have to make an assessment, so when they are assessing, our buildings are being burnt.”
The woman said that she had just paid one million dollars in rates and taxes but was not provided with the most basic services by the authorities. She questioned the reason for paying taxes if proper services are not being provided.
The business woman said that they are seriously contemplating suing the fire service for damages that they opined could have been avoided if they (fire service) were prepared. The woman said she is unsure what will happen with the some seventeen staff that were employed at the store.
It was while she was speaking to Kaieteur News that officials from the fire service came to conduct investigations at the scene. It was then that Vieira and other business owners vented their displeasure and frustration at what they dubbed tardy work by the fire service.
In a brief interview with Kaieteur News at the scene yesterday morning, the owner of Household Plus, where the fire started, Shaheed Hamid, said that he will be relocating his twenty staff to another building that he will rent further up the street.
“I have to keep them. They have been loyal to me.” He said that the fire will be a setback but he has to move on.
Owner of Wireless Connections, Maxwell Thom, said that it is too early to decide what he will do next. He is not sure if he will be going back to the Regent Street location but was grateful for the support and the concern shown by many in the wake of the blaze. Also at the scene yesterday were a number of insurance officials assessing the damage caused by the inferno.
According to a senior insurance official, once the claims for insurance monies are made it normally takes up to four weeks to process once they would have gotten the necessary reports from the police and the fire service.
He could not say if claims were already made to his company but informed that they were only there to see first hand what had happen to be better informed.
Eyewitnesses reported that the fire started around 3:30 Sunday morning at Household Plus. There are also reports that a man was seen running from behind Household Plus just before the fire started.
This fire is the second in nine days on the same Regent Street. Like this fire, the first one started at a business place owned by the Hamid family. Five businesses were also destroyed in that conflagration.
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