$$M in losses as WCD business place gutted

Mar 30, 2011 News

– three homeless

By Jenelle Carter

A mother and her two daughters are now homeless after a fire early yesterday morning completely destroyed their home and a multi-million-dollar business place at Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara. The building housed Saver’s Choice Travel Service and Cambio, a Money Gram office, grocery, electronic and haberdashery store.

Owner of Saver’s Choice, Abdul Hamid, at the fire scene yesterday

Reports are that around 07:00 hours, fire was seen coming from a back building which is located at lot 97 Meten-Meer-Zorg Public Road. Fazeila Hamid, who occupied that building, said she was going about her regular morning chores when she noticed smoke coming from the main switch to her building. The woman said she immediately raised an alarm and informed the owner of the business that there was a fire in the compound. The woman said she and her two daughters, Salena and Merissa Rajkumar, fled the building with the clothes in their backs. She related that with the assistance of some villagers they managed to save some items from the store.
The owner of the store, Abdul Hamid, said he was at his home a few villages away when he got a call indicating that his business place was on fire. He said when he arrived there were flames in the area where the main switch was situated, and he tried putting the fire out, but to no avail.
Hamid told this publication that his losses would be in the millions since they had recently taken in stock. He however noted that the business was fully insured. According to Hamid, in recent weeks the business, as well as other homes in the area, was being affected by low voltage and this was reported to the power company. He added that the main switch area where the fire started had never given any trouble before.
Meanwhile residents of the area opined that the store could have been saved if the fire service had responded promptly.
One woman told this publication that the fire service took more than an hour to turn up and when they did do so, there was no water. Kaieteur News understands that after the fire gutted the back building it swiftly moved over to a storage bond and then to the store itself.
Some items were saved after residents broke into the store via a concrete wall. The items were taken to a resident’s house where they were stored. The police had to be called in to avoid looting as persons came in numbers to the scene. The crowd which gathered also caused a major traffic build-up. In addition, some residents were seen offering assistance to firemen as they tried to extinguish the blaze at the gutted structure and prevent it from spreading to adjacent buildings.
In less than 24 hours this was the second fire to have occurred on the West Coast of Demerara. Only Monday, a house at Stewartville was completely destroyed. That fire was said to have started after a lighted gas stove was left unattended.