TEN years after fire destroyed it the first time, New Amsterdam’s lone woodworking establishment again suffered the same fate during the wee hours of the morning on Sunday resulting in the owner incurring losses of in excess of $20M. at Plantation Caracas, Greater New Amsterdam, Berbice.

Divisional Fire Commander Haimchandra Persaud told the Guyana Chronicle that while investigations into this matter are ongoing, he is appealing to property owners to install detection systems in their building, so that persons nearby can be aware of a fire. He said that in so doing, there can be a quicker response from the Fire Service.

“We responded promptly, but by then the 35 x 45-foot wooden edifice was completely destroyed,” Commander Persaud said. “It would appear as though the ‘Security’ was asleep, but if there was a detection system, there would have been an alarm; persons would have been alerted sooner.”

Businessman Tai Lin ‘William’ Leung, aged 75, recalled receiving a call just after 03:00hrs, informing him that his business-place was on fire. But by the time he contacted the Fire Service, he said, they told him that they’d already been informed, and had dispatched a tender to the location.

While he applauded the Service for their promptness, he nevertheless lamented the loss of all his electrical tools, such as planers, band saws, shapers and moulders which he estimates to be valued between $5M to $20M. All he’d managed to save, he said, were a few panel doors.

A carpenter and joiner by profession, Leung said he doubts whether the incident could have been caused by an electrical flaw, or that he had failed to plug out an equipment.

It was at the height of the Christmas season back in December 2010 that Leung’s first factory, then housed on leased property on Pitt Street, New Amsterdam, was hit by fire, leaving in its wake millions of dollars in losses.

After that tragedy, the business, which had been run from Pitt Street for 14 years, was relocated to its present site at Plantation Caracas, in Greater New Amsterdam, from which it has operated for the past 16 years.

Leung recalled he and his manager, Tarachand, being awakened back then shortly after 01:00hrs by a call saying that there was smoke coming from the shop, which at the time was about a mile-and-a-half from where they lived.

He said that by the time he entered the lower flat of the two-storeyed building, it was already too late, as the fire had begun to run along the electrical wiring and elsewhere, and try as he might, he could not bring it under control. Thankfully, the business was covered by insurance.