FIRE of as yet unknown origin ripped through Apartment 22 of the South Ruimveldt Shopping Plaza on Monday, and caused considerable damage to the home of Althea Tucker, a nurse at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), who had worked the night shift on the night before the fire, and was preparing to return home on Monday morning when another nurse whose sister occupies one of the apartments at the Plaza told her to hurry home because the Shopping Plaza was on fire.

Not for one moment did Tucker imagine it was her apartment that was on fire. “When I arrived in front of the yard, I saw a fire brigade and firemen working; but it wasn’t until I turned the corner in the yard that I realised it was my home,” the evidently distraught Nurse Tucker said.

Asked what was her reaction, she replied, “I am a nurse for several years and know to deal with trauma,” meaning that she has learnt to take things in stride.

“What I am thankful for is that my mother and children were not in the building at the time, because they probably would have panicked and made the wrong move,” Nurse Tucker said.

In fact, she said that when contacted, her mother took the news badly and almost went hysterical.
Tucker, who has four children living in the building with her –- two aged 13, one aged five and another four — said that whenever she works the night shift, her mother, Jean Caroll, who works at the Office of the President, would come over to spend the night with her children.

On this occasion, her mother and the children had just left the home for work and school respectively when tragedy struck. They departed the home at around 07:40 hrs, and the fire erupted around 08:30 hrs.

The fire started in an abandoned apartment adjoining the lower flat of Tucker’s apartment. She said firemen are trying to ascertain the cause of the fire, but it looks as though it is the work of an arsonist; or a ‘junkie’ must have entered the (abandoned) apartment, which was not properly secured, and had presumably left a ‘joint’ alight.

What Tucker is sure about is that the fire did not originate in her apartment, even though she has been seriously affected.

Before the fire, Tucker had recognised that the safety of her home had been seriously compromised, and she had immediately set about contracting persons to secure the open spaces, using concrete, but to no avail, she now realises.

She said she did not inform her children at school about the fire, because she realised the effect it would have had on them and their school work. The children came home around 17:00 hrs, after they had left lessons.
The Plaza is owned by the management of Continental Agencies Limited, and the fire was reported to them; but, late on Monday, they had not yet visited the complex to make enquiries.

(By Shirley Thomas)