Scores of Parika vendors are counting their losses after an afternoon fire gutted a big section of the Parika market, completely destroying more than 50 stalls.
Many of the vendors said they were unable to save anything as the fire quickly ripped through the market. It is suspected that the fire might have been ignited by welding work that was being done to a section of the market.
Vendors and persons in the area said the Fire Service took more than one hour to respond. The closest fire station is located several miles away at Leonora.
It was just after 3 o’clock that an alarm was raised that fire had engulfed the top of one of the stalls. Within minutes, the fire quickly spread to other stalls forcing vendors to grab whatever they could, and run to safety.
A 49-year-old vendor, Harryram Samlall, told News Source and he and his wife have been vending at the Parika market for over 12 years. He said he was alerted to the fire by his wife and within minutes the fire moved to the area where his stalls are located. The couple and their workers were forced to run to safety, leaving everything behind.
“We couldn’t save nothing. Everything was on fire and one hour after was when the fire truck reach to Parika and I run to the truck and beg them to come on a side that wasn’t burning, but they said they couldn’t drive through the fire to get there. And that caused all of the stalls to burn. Over 40 stalls were burnt or more, and these were stalls full with goods”, Mr. Samlall explained.
He said he is not sure. how he will pick up the pieces since the stalls were the livelihoods for him and his wife and their workers and also assisted in paying the fees for his daughter who is overseas attending college.
The man became emotional as he recounted that all of his hard work went up in flames, and there was nothing that he could have done about it.
Another vendor, Roxanne Singh, told News Source that she has been working in the market for more than twenty years. She said today was a devastating day for her and she is lost as to how she will recover from the tragedy. The 57-year-old woman said the vendors who depended on the market to make a living will need lots of help to get back on their feet.
“This afternoon all I see was two vendors running and I heard something going pang pang and when I ask them what happen, they said they weren’t sure, and so when I look, I run to front and I only ran with my bag and the entire place was in a big fire in the market and then everything started burning and you couldn’t save anything”.
Other vendors were too distraught to speak, but have all been left in shock and disbelief.
The Guyana Fire Service has launched a full investigation into the devastating fire, which has racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and damages.
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