By Shirley Thomas

GALLANT fire-fighting by members of the Guyana Fire Service yesterday averted a major inferno in downtown Georgetown when fire struck a four-storey building housing a number of stores at Avenue of the Republic and America Street.Shortly after 11:30hrs, the fire gutted the two upper flats of the four-storey building at ‘Raj Wholesale Complex,’ ruining millions of dollars in stocks and leaving dozens of workers on the breadline.

The building is owned by businessman Rudat Persaud and houses several small businesses operated by tenants of his, many of whom are said to be his relatives. Among the businesses operating out of that complex were RAJ Variety, Trenz Citi Barbershop and Tattoo Shop, Razor Pro Barbershop, USA Style Fashions and several other boutiques and variety stores.
An evidently shaken Persaud, who also has an office on the ground floor of the complex, told the Guyana Chronicle that he was sitting in his office when around 11:45 hrs a man named Troy came running breathlessly to him, saying: “Mike, Mike get up an come quick. Look black smoke coming from upstairs in de building!”
He said he quickly responded and cringed when he saw what was his worst nightmare: his building was on fire. He quickly called the fire department and within minutes they arrived on the scene and got into action.
In an effort to contain the fire to the one building, the firemen began dousing the upper sections of the building which by then was smoking heavily. Lamenting that losses would have run into hundreds of millions of dollars, he said his stocks had to be taken into consideration as well as his tenants’ stocks.

And just one day earlier, on Wednesday, he had off-loaded a 40-ft container of merchandise, including clothing and boots into the building which he figured caused the heavy smoking.
The firefighters did a remarkable job at containing the fire to the one building and this was commended by Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan who visited the scene of the fire.
But although the fire was contained to the three upper floors of the building, the businesses still suffered heavy losses, since what was not destroyed by fire would have been damaged by water drawn by firefighters from the nearby Avenue of the Republic canal.
Three fire tenders were initially dispatched to the scene, and two more later, but in the absence of fire-hydrants in the vicinity, the fire-fighters faced major challenges sourcing clean water to douse the burning building. They were forced to resort to accessing black, sludgy water from the nearby canal running along the Avenue of the Republic.
While the fire-fighters did their best to contain the spread of the fire, those upstairs in the burning building faced smoke inhalation while those on the road beneath were occasionally forced to retreat as a result of shattered glass windows cascading heavily on them. An instrument was later brought to control the effects of the smoke.

Owners of at least two businesses on the ground floor quickly mobilized employees to evacuate what they were able to, and place them on the roadway. Thanks to the police, they were quickly able to set up barriers, evacuate the crowd at the bus park which is just across the road from the burning building and cordon off the area to allow the firemen to do their work.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor of Georgetown, Sherod Duncan, looking despondently at the burning building and the devastation, said his heart goes out to the dozens of people now on the breadline and having to face the days ahead with no jobs.
This newspaper asked about his take on the removal of the South Ruimveldt, Lamaha Park and Lodge buses from outside the Stabroek Market, and relocating them just outside where the fire took place. He replied that it was to facilitate cleaning of the Stabroek Square. He however admitted that their proximity to the commercial building was of concern to him, and in the circumstances would have to be looked at.
“But my immediate concern is the losses to the business owners and to the number of persons who will be out of work here, because this building houses a number of smaller businesses and those persons are going to be put on the breadline as of tomorrow [Friday] … my thoughts are with them.”
The Deputy Mayor also thanked the police for a great job at clearing the area, setting up cordons and maintaining law and order throughout the ordeal. He also congratulated the fire service for doing what he termed a “tremendous” job in trying to contain this fire to the one building, noting that there are adjoining buildings which also faced destruction.
Assistant Commissioner Clifton Hickens of the Guyana Police Force said the police received a call from the Fire Department at 11:38hrs and immediately raced to the scene where they cleared the area of vehicles and the crowd. “Our duty was to cordon off the area for the fire tenders to manoeuvre … There is adequate space and five fire tenders are working in tandem with the Guyana Fire Service and they have managed to do a good job based on my assessment,” the Assistant Commissioner said.
And Fire Officer Mc Gregor said the fire department received the call around 11:34hrs. They immediately dispatched three appliances to the scene. The challenge faced is that water from the first three fire tenders was quickly used up, forcing them to utilize the ‘open water’ source – the Avenue of the Republic canal, he said. Initially they were faced with heavy congestion of the fire scene which is opposite a bus park, catering for buses from three destinations and naturally always attracting a crowd.

“The area was found to be very congested and so we had to rely on the police traffic department to assist us to get the vehicles out of the way and then to control the crowd,” the fire officer said.
GRILLE WORK
But of acute concern to the fire department, he noted, was the time taken to get into the burning building because of the heavy security grill work, Mc Gregor said.
“We took approximately 55 minutes to cut open the southern door on the stairway to get into the second floor and that is testimony to the fact that businesses are more concerned with security than safety,” the fire officer lamented. This matter needs to be addressed, he opined.