Cuban nationals force open grill door to contain Charlotte Street fire

Sep 07, 2020 News

Fourth floor of Kanhai’s building partly gutted

Fire trucks at the scene.

Three Cuban nationals, yesterday, forced open a grill door to contain a fire which erupted on the fourth floor of the building which houses Kanhai’s Electrical on Charlotte Street, Georgetown.
The fire started at around 14:45 hrs and partly gutted Co-Grow, a budget office rental and co-working space. According to one of the owners of the building, tenants on the third floor – all Cuban nationals – noticed smoke emanating from the fourth floor; the third floor of the building houses Kanhai’s Inn apartments.
Three of male tenants, the co-owner said, immediately rushed up stairs and rocked opened a grill door gaining access to Co-Grow. With only buckets of water and fire extinguishers, the three men were able to contain almost 90% of blaze before fire fighters arrived to finish off the job.
Their efforts were highly praised by the other tenants and co-owner who said that the quick move prevented the blaze from becoming disastrous. He claimed that the tenants were scheduled to return Cuba but were left stranded because of Covid-19.
Some of the tenants told Kaieteur News that they were in their apartments when they heard loud noises coming from the fourth floor. They peeped out and saw smoke and subsequently after heard screams of “Fire! Fire! Fire!”. Most of them panicked and ran out of the building. The three who had rushed up-stairs said that the loud noises were explosions of a few appliances. Investigators are suspecting that the fire might be of electrical origin. Nevertheless, as investigations continue, the co-owner is estimating his loss to be over $1 million.
He said that the office space had recently been renovated but was not in use for the last two months also because of the Coronavirus pandemic.