A FIRE early Tuesday morning destroyed a three-storied building owned by Working People’s Alliance (WPA) activist, Ms. Joycelyn Dow at 172 Charlotte Street, Georgetown and leaving a trail of destruction in its path.
The fire was said to have started at around 05:20 hrs and attention was drawn to it, by

Mrs. Dow who occupied the two upper flats at the back of the three-storied wooding building and rented out apartments on the lower floor.

Meanwhile, firemen were combing the debris to determine the cause of the fire which has left hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The apartments on the ground floor housed: Anetha’s Elegance Boutique, owned by Anetha Daniels who specialises in African wear; Trans Caribbean Cargo International, owned by Captain Laurie London; a Hair Dressing Salon, owned by Ms. Kimberly Niles and a Lumber Yard owned by Rambarran Ramlagan.
Mrs. Dow recalled that shortly after 4:30 hrs the alarm went off and she went outside but saw nothing, and so proceeded to the middle floor from whence she saw smoke emanating. She insisted: “It wasn’t on the first two floors. It was clearly on the bottom floor,” adding, “but the smoke was very nauseous.” She quickly called the fire service and they responded very quickly.

Meantime, she called up her son who had spent the night with her. On experiencing that development, her son grabbed her and whisked her out of the house, but she admitted running back up into the building to try and get her pets – four dogs and two cats, but only got two of the dogs.
The smoke soon developed into a huge flame, and in record time the entire wooden component of the building was ablaze, with the flames licking away angrily at the age-old and prized architecturally-designed building.

Soon, the entire residential dwelling was gutted, leaving Mrs. Dow with absolutely nothing but her two dogs, and with the Trans Caribbean Cargo Service, reduced to a rubble. But, with valiant fire-fighting by the firefighters, they managed to douse the fire threatening Anetha’s African Wear boutique and Kimberly Niles’ Hair dressing Salon. But even though not burnt or scorched, Anetha’s Elegance suffered huge losses caused through soaking with water from the firemen’s hoses.

Weeping, Ms. Daniels who deals in African attire, said the disaster was most unfortunate – firstly since she was celebrating her 10th year in the business and had even planned a cocktail event for next week. Then secondly, with African Emancipation Day just around the corner she had travelled abroad and returned with large stocks of clothing just the day before, so as to give a boost for Emancipation 2017.

As for Trans Caribbean Cargo International, Mr. Laurie London confirmed that everything in that entity was burnt to smoulders and 12 years of investment and hard labour would have gone down the drain. He said that he was at home when he received a call from Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who informed him that his business was on fire, and who also raced down to the scene.

Asked how does he see the destruction affecting the company, London replied: “Oh, terrible. There’s nothing left … everything has gone down.” Recounting the first moments of the conflagration, he likened it unto an inferno.
A cargo transit office, staffed by four, it was a facility where documentation and processing of cargo coming in from North America were done, right here in Guyana. The customer would come into the office, pay for the cargo; uplift the documents, and that having been completed, would go to the wharf where he presents the documents and picks the cargo up.

Meanwhile, owner of Ramlagan’s Lumber yard, Rambarran Ramlagan claimed not to have suffered significant losses. Dow recalled that this has been the second fire to have brought her destruction, the first being at her Liana Cane furniture factory at Victoria Road, Plaisance, in January 2016.
Meanwhile, Fire Chief, Marlon Gentle said firefighters reported heavy fire conditions at the rear, upper and middle flat of the building, but the firemen were able to contain the flames from spreading to nearby buildings. Investigations are ongoing.