Even as three business owners are counting their losses, major disaster was averted at the Parika Marketing Centre, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) on Saturday morning, when a fire completely destroyed a bond and damaged two nearby cook shops located in the Marketing Centre.
According to the Market’s Administrator, Toolaram Rohit, a security guard making his routine checks observed fire coming from inside the bond just after 09:00h and immediately raised an alarm. The Guyana Fire Service was summoned, and arrived just in time to contain the fire to the bond, while nearby stalls suffered minimal damages.
Stallholders combing through the debris after the fire
“I called the Fire Service at Leonora (Fire Station)… The Market has two fire extinguishers, and I gave them that, but it couldn’t work because the fire started to (spread); and people came and we did the bucket brigade, but it still didn’t out it, because the heat was so intense they couldn’t do anything. When the fire tender came, they contained the fire and then another truck came and they out it, but the stall was completely burnt down,” Rohit related.
The fire reportedly started in, and destroyed, the storage bond of Sharmilla Shaw of Lot 2449 Block 8, Tuschen, EBE, and then spread to the neighbouring cook shops.
Shaw was too distraught to speak to this publication, but her sister and co-owner of the bond, Sharda Shamma, related that she received a call about the fire and immediately rushed to the market, only to find everything destroyed.
“The stall is at the back of the market, and we used to sell there; but since business up there slow down, we move to the front, and that stall turn into a bond. It had clothes, wares, cosmetics, bicycle, toys and so on. It is a lot of money (involved), and I don’t know if she had insurance,” Shamma related.
Shamma said family members have been operating in the market for over 28 years, and the family owns four stalls, selling clothing, toys, cosmetics and other everyday items. She said the fire is a major setback, and added that a 10-year-old who is the grandson of one of the nearby stallholders admitted to playing with a stick which he lit.
However, she could not definitively say whether that is what caused the blaze.
Several persons at the scene praised the members of the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) for their exceptional and timely response. They declared that if the GFS had not arrived on time, the entire Marketing Centre could have been engulfed and billions of dollars in damages would have resulted.
“Is a good thing them come in time, and then I hear people saying that is some lil boy that was playing with fire and a pointer that start the fire,” vendor Vashti (only name given) said.
When contacted, Senior Superintendent Karim Baksh, the Divisional Commander, said that such information is yet to be related to him. He added that investigations are ongoing to determine whether there was any foul play involved.
The Guyana Fire Service is conducting its investigation to determine the origin of the blaze. (Lakhram Bhagirat)
