…partner held as M&CC probes

FOLLOWING an argument with her partner, an irate woman allegedly set alight a stall at the Stabroek Market Wharf on Monday night which engulfed several other stalls.
Reports are that the fire began sometime between 22:00hrs and midnight on Monday. Two vendors are being credited for quickly alerting the nearby fire service which resulted in swift action to contain the blaze. Perhaps, they were able to save the vicinity labelled as “hazardous” for occupancy, from being completely engulfed.

The fire was contained to the north-eastern section of the wharf—a section in ruinous condition which Town Clerk Royston King had once referred to as a “calamity waiting to happen.”
Access had supposedly been restricted to the wharf since in September by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) as reconstruction works are expected to commence but many vendors are still ignoring the order to cease operation.

On Tuesday, providing the report of the City Constabulary, Acting Chief Constable Laurel Gittens told the media that she had received the call about the fire. “A stallholder was arrested who claimed that himself and his [partner] were engaged in an argument and she wounded him and he was suggesting that she’s the person who lit the stall on fire, but that is just speculations thus far. However, he was held in custody; he was transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital,” Gittens informed.

She continued: “This morning (Tuesday) at about 08:15hrs I received another call that another stall was ignited. However, that is under control and from all speculation that fire escalated from some exposed electrical wire, but all this is just speculation until the report from the Fire Service is final.”

When she spoke on the matter, Gittens said she had no confirmation on whether the woman in question was arrested. However, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) is said to be treating the event as arson.
Several stall holders who still ply their trade at the wharf recounted similar events which they said originated from an argument between a fish vendor nicknamed ‘Chop-off’ and his female partner.

“The fire started in the third lane from [my stall]. A man by the name of ‘Chop-off’ he has a girl, a red girl. He and she had a problem and she stabbed him with a knife and he said when he go to make a report nobody didn’t pay him no mind out there at the Constabulary so he went at Brickdam [police station] but by the time he come back she light the stand on fire and scale the fence,” recounted food vendor Roxanne Dixon.
Dixon’s stall was completely ravaged in the fire which she told the newspaper would cost her “hundreds of thousands”.

She arrived at the scene at around 23:10hrs on Monday and, pointing to the roof above her, added: “The fire men really fight but, as you could see, all this is old wood.” “I don’t know what I gon really do. Right now I’m kind of traumatised. Christmas coming so I might have to take to the streets and hustle. I have four children and five grandchildren.”

I was in town
Meanwhile, Dason Dundus, a grocery vendor whose stall was also destroyed said: “I was in town when the fire started. I was outside [the market] selling around quarter to 12. I lost over two million and change.”
Asked how he intends to continue to make a living, the 30-year-old added: “You have to start all over again, I don’t have a choice.”

The acting chief constable also addressed the media’s questions of why the vendors were present at the market wharf at such late hours or at all, considering that the M&CC had ordered them to relocate for their safety. “The place is deemed to be dilapidated and individuals are not supposed to be dwelling here. However, it’s a difficult task to have them evacuate this area,” Gittens said. “I would have learnt that many times there were notices placed; the place was cordoned off with tape and all of that but persons are still reluctant to leave this environment.”

She added that she had suggested that notices be placed beyond the market wharf’s entrance point and in public areas so that persons are aware that the M&CC would not be held culpable for any serious disasters.
But for now, the dilapidated state of the structure has not deterred stall-owners from returning to sell at the location, as Gittens stated that they continue to find different ways and means to enter the vicinity.

“The tide rises and it falls and they have other areas rather than the access and entrance to the wharf from the thoroughfare of the constabulary who has the responsibility for security. What I would have learnt is that persons are now going on to Transport’s wharf; jump over the wall and gain entry. Mostly the men and you would find women [too] doing that. That is how determined they are not to be relocated,” she said.

Gittens added that she believes that some persons are even overnighting in their stalls.
Questioned further on the authority’s responsibility in addressing the situation, she said that the work of the City Council is not an easy one as they often times have to deal with situations which threaten the livelihood of others. “Dealing with market vendors and the rest, it’s always a challenge when you see renovation and demolishing and all of that…there were times when they had battles against the ranks of the constabulary—vendors and stall holders and all of them—to get them to evacuate places. It happens,” Gittens said.

She added: “There are persons here for a number of years—since the days when I was a recruit and constable; there are persons who I would have seen or came to know then, they are still dwelling here. So, you can say this is their home away from home.”
A few former vendors of the Stabroek Market Wharf have already begun construction of their temporary stalls at the portion of reserve west of the Parliament Building, made available to relocate a number of the vendors affected by the planned renovations.
Dixon had also told the newspaper that she, too, is expecting a portion of the reserve but as to wait her turn.

“They [M&CC] promised us a stand but I am a snackette [vendor] so I have to wait until they fix the people who are selling perishables before [I move over]. But they have space for us out there, I won’t lie. But I don’t know about the money to build and all them things right now,” she said.

Gittens corroborated that most of the vendors at the wharf are persons intended to be re-located. But, in the meantime, questioned whose responsibility it would be should there be an unfortunate accident at the wharf, she said: “The Mayor and City Council would have already given their mandate; sent notices and they have specified in no uncertain terms that persons dwelling within this environment are doing so at their own risk.”