Arson the cause of Family Planning Building fire - Fire Chief

Arson the cause of Family Planning Building fire – Fire Chief

Mar 30, 2014 News

Fire Chief Marlon Gentle has confirmed that arson was behind an early morning fire at the Family Planning Association Building on Croal Street, Georgetown. Kaieteur News understands that the fire started shortly after 01:00hrs on Saturday. The interior of the building sustained extensive damage by both fire and water.

President of the Family Planning Association Jason Shepherd

Gentle told Kaieteur News yesterday that several small fires were set at the building over a period of time. Gentle opined that it was either kerosene or gasolene which may have been used to start the fire.
Kaieteur News was told that the association gained ownership in 1998 and had been operating from that location ever since.
President of the Association, Jason Shepherd, told Kaieteur News that he became aware of the fire shortly after 07:00 hours, yesterday. He said that officers really didn’t know who they had to look for but as word got around he was notified. Shepherd told Kaieteur News that over the last month workers and clients were robbed at that building.
He said that there was an attempted break-in at the building and the police was summoned not so long ago. Shepherd said that he was unaware of any “fires” which according to the Fire Chief have happened. He said that he did not know about any property dispute regarding the building since according to him the association was the owner.
He said that his organisation has not yet concluded the investigations so until that’s done everything is at a standstill. Shepherd explained that there’s no other place to house the staff. He said they need to resolve the issues as to where the clinic and staff would be housed.
Persons in the area told Kaieteur News that they did not know much about how the fire started. One lady said that the building is usually tightly secured in the evenings and is occupied Mondays to Fridays.

The exterior of the building.

Three fire tenders responded to the fire call and saved the building from total destruction. The evidence showing that the blaze was the work of arsonists was also saved. The building is located about two doors from the Greenheart University.