Electrical fire destroys Regent Street cellphone store
The owners of a cellphone store are now left counting their losses after a fire suspected to be electrical in origin destroyed their Regent Street, Georgetown business on Sunday afternoon.
The scene after firefighters doused the blaze at IConnect on Regent Street
The fire began around 15:00h at the IConnect store situated in the ground floor of the C&F Mall, located next door to the Footsteps building and obliquely opposite the City Mall on Regent Street.
When Guyana Times arrived at the scene, the blaze was already extinguished and firefighters were inspecting the ruins of the store. Chinese nationals who occupy an adjacent store were seen draining water which had collected in their store.
Speaking with media operatives at the scene, Fire Chief Marlon Gentle explained that the Guyana Fire Service received a report around 15:10h that smoke was seen coming from the building. He noted that two units were immediately dispatched – one each from Central and Alberttown Fire Stations.
“When they got here, they reported heavy smoke conditions and with some amount of visible flames in the building. Of course, there were challenges in getting in at first because of security features – grilles and all that…,” Gentle related.
He noted that other units were also dispatched as a precautionary measure; however, the first responding units managed to get into the building and brought the fire under control.
Gentle said the fire was confined to the IConnect store, which sells cellphones and accessories, as well as other electronic items.
Moreover, the Fire Chief pointed out that based on what he observed, it was clear that something went wrong internally and sparked an electrical fire in the store.
“I would want to hazard that from what I saw, some of the electrical work that was done there needs to be re-looked at because clearly, the magnitude of the store and the type of installations there, I think, may have had some issues of overload,” he stated.
While Guyana Times did not get to speak with the owners of IConnect, the owner of the C&F Mall, Paul Fraser commended the work of the Fire Service in preventing the blaze from spreading to other parts of the building. Fraser related that upon receiving a call about the fire, he rushed to the scene and saw firefighters putting out the blaze.
