CLIFFORD Saunders who operates a shop at West Watooka Hill Top in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) left his place of business on an errand late on Friday night but returned to find his shop completely reduced to ashes. Arson is suspected to be the cause of the blaze.
A senior official attached to the Police ‘E’ Division (Linden) told the Chronicle that police investigations have revealed that more than $200,000 in groceries perished in the fire. The official said the 10-foot-by seven-foot structure was never equipped with electricity.
Efforts to contact a senior fire official proved futile, as the phones kept ringing out.
A resident who contacted the Chronicle in the early stages of the fire disclosed that the shop owner does not enjoy cordial relations with residents of the neighbourhood. That resident said the shop had been broken into on several occasions; and at one time the man and his lover had a fight in which the lover had allegedly set the shop afire, and it was completely destroyed.
“The man always does have argument; like he and nobody don’t get along. When I saw the smoke, I ran to see what was happening; but by the time I reach, the fire was huge and the owner wasn’t there. I called the Fire Service and they took like an hour to respond to the fire,” the resident said.
(By Asif Hakim)
