“Gone in minutes…everything just gone in minutes.”  This was how eyewitnesses graphically described the fire which razed  the Wyaka business complex at Lethem last Monday as they commiserated with the owners hours after that devastation. The combination of combustible materials within the store and the absence of a fire tender or an immediately available source of water were major factors which rendered fire-fighting efforts totally ineffective, a resident disclosed on Tuesday.
“The fire had its own way. It was just fortunate for many others that the area is not densely populated or else it would have been a disaster multiplied many times over,”  another eyewitness/resident said.
The destroyed complex had housed a general store, a storage bond, an internet cafй as well as living quarters for the owner Ms. Ann Ramsarran.
The  badly traumatized businesswoman was unavailable for comment but losses have been estimated in millions of dollars.
A team of investigators from the Fire Department in Georgetown  conducted investigations at Lethem on Tuesday  but,  up to late that evening, the origins of the blaze remained a mystery.
Regional Chairman of Region Nine,  Clarendo Lucas, has expressed gratitude for the prompt response from the Central Fire Department.
“I am quite happy with the quick visit from Georgetown by a high level investigative team and hope, at the very least, that some pertinent recommendations may come from the visit to  help  people at Lethem to avoid any further such disaster,” he said.
He stressed that Lethem was a community with a rapidly growing commercial  sector and the need for a fire tender apart, businesspeople as well as home owners need to be fire safety conscious to the point of keeping fire buckets and fire extinguishers  and such equipment  at hand in readiness for  any such emergency.