Fire Chief confirms arson
CHIEF Fire Officer Marlon Gentle said, yesterday, that the flames which destroyed the Jaigobin Rajkumar Complex in Regent Street, Georgetown, on April 1, was maliciously set. He said the evidence indicated that the door to Dilip’s Variety Store was prised open and a flammable substance used to start the blaze on the eastern side of the building, near the stairway.

Dilip’s Variety Store on fire.

The Fire Chief said what started at Dilip’s Variety Store quickly consumed the building, according to the report he received last Friday, when the investigations were completed.
Early that April Fool’s Day, at Regent and Wellington Streets, Lacytown, several stores in the Jaigobin Rajkumar Complex were destroyed, where mostly Indian nationals counted their losses in millions of dollars.
The conflagration, caused by arson, moved through Dilip’s Variety and scorched Raf’s Variety Store but left other business places, exclusively owned by Indian nationals and one by a Guyanese, Smart Choice, water soaked.
Those affected are Dilip’s, Akashe, Prakash Discount, Manu’s and Monty’s, all in the same structure located opposite the GUYOIL Gas Station.
One proprietor had criticised the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) for not entering the blazing inferno to prevent total destruction.

HEAVILY GRILLED
But Gentle defended the firefighters, pointing out that the place was heavily grilled and shuttered with quarter inch steel plates and it was not advisable for the firemen to venture where flames and heavy smoke were visible.
He noted the businesses stocked flammable merchandise, such as clothing, perfumes, sprays and aerosols and, as his men went into action to save the nearby buildings, the police had to be summoned to lend support in crowd control and security.
Vivekenand Gansham, brother of the man who owns the Jaigobin building, Vidushi Ramkumar, told reporters a dispute over the property has been pending in court for about three years.
He disclosed that the legacy was supposed to have been divided amongst, some, 12 siblings.
Proprietor of Dilip’s Variety, Dilip Murjani, admitted that, when he was alerted, he thought it was an April Fool’s joke. However, he went there and realised it was, indeed, ablaze.
Murjani said he had been a tenant at the location for eight years and estimates his loss at just under $20M.