A fire on Sunday afternoon, May 8, ripped through Republic Avenue, Linden, completely destroying a Digicel outlet and a house, while severely damaging the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council’s office.
Two persons have been rendered homeless, and the proprietor of the Digicel outlet is counting losses in the millions, with hundreds of expensive handsets having been ruined in the flames.
The fire started shortly after 12: 40hrs in the upper flat of a building which is said to be owned by an individual known only as “Venus”, who resides with relatives overseas.
Eyewitnesses, seeing smoke emanating from the building, raised an alarm and the fire service was immediately called in.
Minutes before the firemen arrived, a significant portion of the wooden upper flat was already engulfed in flames, which quickly spread to the lower concreted flat, destroying most of the contents of the Digicel Cell Smart store.
Region 10 Chairman Mortimer Mingo confirmed that the Regional Democratic Council’s building, which is located next to the gutted building, was affected by the blaze. He could not confirm any further details, except that he knew some documents were removed and placed in an alternative location because of the threat posed by the fire.
However, Regional Executive Officer Henry Rodney stated that “90 per cent of the documents that could have been destroyed by the fire were saved”. He said that, after the alarm was raised, staff and other personnel immediately began removing documents from the regional chairman’s office, parts of the registry and from ths personnel department.
“The RDC office was scorched, some rooms gutted slightly, and widows broken; but we have managed to save the important documents,” Rodney explained.
The scorched exterior of the Regional Democratic Council office
He projected that work at the RDC would be affected for approximately two days, pointing out that once the documents which were removed have been retrieved, the RDC’s operations could return to a state of normalcy by the end of this week.
BOSAI praised
Meanwhile, BOSAI Minerals Incorporated was praised for the role it played in containing the fire and ensuring that neither of the two buildings next to the gutted one was significantly affected by the inferno.
Guyana Times International understands that one of BOSAI’s fire tenders was used to put out the blaze.
The police and fire service have since mounted an investigation to determine the cause of the fire.
A fire on Sunday afternoon, May 8, ripped through Republic Avenue, Linden, completely destroying a Digicel outlet and a house, while severely damaging the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council’s office.
