By Shirley Thomas and Jaime Hall
Guyana Chronicle
June 16, 2001
`...everything's gone, and it's a big slap to the housing programme of Guyana'. - Youth, Sport and Culture Minister, Ms. Gail Teixeira
THE government's housing drive, its flagship development programme, suffered a severe setback last night when fire of unknown origin destroyed the Housing Ministry and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) on Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown.
Reports said the fire started on the top floor of the four-flat building which was reduced to rubble, leaving millions of dollars in damage.
The fire was reportedly detected around 19:00 hrs, well after workers would have left the building.
One witness said he saw smoke coming from the top at the back of the building, and within five minutes the entire top floor was engulfed in flames.
An official from Instant Security Service which provided security for the building, said a full shift of security guards was on duty when the fire started, and the fire department was quickly alerted.
As fire began sweeping through the building, the guards managed to save some vehicles which were parked in the compound, but nothing was reported saved from within the complex which housed several departments, apart from the CH&PA.
Other offices destroyed in the fire were the Ministry of Labour's Industrial Relations section; Empowerment - Recruitment and Placement; Occupational Health and Safety; Drainage and Irrigation; the Board of Industrial Training; Hydraulics, among others.
There was also a snackette on the bottom floor.
The offices of the Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Shaik Baksh and Permanent Secretary, Ms. Claudette Moore were on the bottom floor of the building.
It is understood that the Minister of Labour, Dr. Dale Bisnauth, who is currently being housed in the Ministry of Human Services on Water Street, was due to move into the Homestretch Avenue building soon.
Presidential Adviser on Empowerment, Mr. Odinga Lumumba said he got a call about the fire around 19:30 hrs, and rushed down to the scene only to find the building well alight.
"When I got down here, the building was burning and there was one fire tender, and one hose."
He said a lot of computers, plans, drawings and designs have been destroyed, along with documentation for housing. All drawings for the Drainage and Irrigation Department and the Central Housing and Planning Authority have been destroyed, he said.
Lumumba estimated that more than 150 employees would be out of employment initially.
He said the building was very old and freshly painted, which many persons on the scene saw as the ideal conditions for fuelling the flames.
Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Ms. Gail Teixeira, who was at the scene, said the destruction of the building was a tremendous loss and would certainly throw the housing programme back.
She said Drainage and Irrigation records, house lot applications, allocation records, documents being processed for onward transmission to the entities which prepare transports, and other documents would have been destroyed in the blaze.
She said that records of persons who have applied for house lots and did not get through would also have been kept there.
"It's very sad, and it's going to put back the housing programme of Guyana...everything's gone, and it's a big slap to the housing programme of Guyana," she lamented.
The building which was constructed more than 40 years ago, was initially a pavilion from which thousands viewed horse racing around Durban Park in the sixties and bet hard-earned cash on favourite horses such as "Brown Girl" and "Sports Desk", a racing fan recalled.
It was also the venue for the popular Broadcasting House sponsored teenage show "Pop Along."
Mayor Hamilton Green who was also at the scene said the building was originally the Grand Pavillion of the Demerara Turf Club Race Course.
The neighbouring building to the east, which houses the Commonwealth Youth Programme, the Help and Shelter and Women Across Differences offices was untouched.
Also saved was the flat concrete building west of the burnt building.
Five fire tenders were deployed at the scene and firemen fought gallantly to keep the fire under control.
As the fire raged, flying red-hot zinc sheets posed a serious threat to the fire fighters.
Dancing and sparking power lines, flying debris of all sizes, smouldering hot embers tumbling dangerously above their heads for an instant presented a graphic picture of the dangers to which firemen are exposed.
Onlookers occasionally gasped as the firemen braved the danger to do their job.
Adding to the unspoken frustration of the team, was the predictable situation of leaking hoses and reservoirs, the supplies of which are exhausted within minutes.
The firemen resorted to the nearby trench along Carifesta Avenue for supplies of water.
Mrs. Hazel Halley-Burnett, one of the Directors of Women Across Differences was among those loud in praise for the work of the firemen who eventually brought the massive blaze under control in less than one-and-a-half hours.
She previously occupied offices in the razed building as an officer of the Women's Affairs Bureau.
Meanwhile, the flow of traffic along Homestretch Avenue had to be halted with the use of barriers, and soon there was a virtual traffic jam along Hadfield Street, with traffic moving both ways.
On hand for crowd control were ranks of the Police Force who also did a good job so that the fire fighters were able to perform their duties without obstruction.