– leaves $Ms in damage

THE Guyana Fire Service is currently investigating the nature of a fire that significantly damaged the Hauraruni Multi-Complex Building on Tuesday. The damage is estimated to be well over $12M.

The Multi-Complex Building is owned and controlled by the Full Gospel Fellowship in the village of Hauraruni, located on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, some 45 minutes from the capital, Georgetown.

Pastor of the Hauraruni Village Church and Member of Staff of the Hauraruni Bible School, Jonathan Banwarie told the Guyana Chronicle that an alarm was raised when a large volume of fire was seen coming from the roof of the building at around 02:00hrs on Tuesday.

According to him, students and villagers responded promptly with buckets of water, and managed to save parts of the building.

“Half of the building has been destroyed,” Pastor Banwarie said. “Over $12M went up in flames…over 1000 mattresses, over 300 plyboards, the walls have cracked, and parts of the floor damaged,” he told this newspaper.
The Timehri Fire Station was called in, but though it would have taken firemen approximately 20 minutes to reach Hauraruni, they never arrived on the scene until after 05:30h.

And that’s because in attempting to make its way to the village via the “trail”, the fire tender got stuck. According to Pastor Banwarie, the trail, which is made of sand and loam at various sections, is in a deplorable state.

“They told us that they were out there a while, but the road is in a terrible state, so they could not have gotten in,” he said. “Leaving the fire tender behind, the firemen were taken to the scene at approximately 05:30h.

The trail was completed approximately three years ago via a self-help venture. Given the recent fire, and the fact that the fire tender could not access the scene because of the deplorable condition of the trail, Pastor Banwarie is now lobbying for the government to intervene.

He said that in the event of another emergency, a fire tender or even an ambulance must

be able to easily access the village. Hauraruni has a population of approximately 220 people.

Meanwhile, the pastor said the damage caused by the fire will hinder activities they have planned. The building was used for conventions, leaders retreat, youth camps and bible school.

In his facebook post, Pastor Banwarie said “We shall overcome.” The Guyana Fire Service is continuing its investigation.