Fire might have started in top flat
By Patrick Denny and Gitanjali Singh
The origin of the fire which razed two wings of the Park Hotel on Saturday and left part of another wing intact is still to be determined by the Fire Brigade. Yesterday, officers of the Brigade were combing through the still smoking rubble to determine the cause of the blaze which swept through the Park Hotel and the New Thriving Restaurant on Main Street. A Fire Brigade official told Stabroek News yesterday that the conflagration reportedly started on the top flat of the building in one of the rooms which had been used for storage. Responding to questions about the Fire Brigade's response, the official told Stabroek News that the fire was a "three turnout" fire on a scale that ran from one to six. He said that in addition to the supplies carried by the tenders the firemen responding to the fire would have obtained water from two hydrants. One of the hydrants was located to the north of the building on the eastern side of Main Street outside of the State House compound; he other is located south of the building in front of the Palm Court Restaurant and Bar and is on the same side of the street as the hotel was. Stabroek News observed that a pump had to be used from the hydrant outside of the Palm Court to increase the pressure of the water in the hose. The official told Stabroek News that two of the tenders which responded to the alarm were assigned to fight the fire from the front of the building and the third was deployed to the rear. He said that when the alarm was received one of the first actions initiated was contact with the Georgetown Sewerage and Water Commissioners (GS&WC) to indicate the area of the fire. The official refused to comment on whether the pressure was adequate for fighting the blaze, explaining that he did not know what resources were at the disposal of the GS&WC. He also did not comment on the capacity of the Fire Brigade to fight fires such as the one that occurred on Saturday. The Kissoon family, owners of the Park Hotel, was high in their praise at the prompt response of the Fire Brigade but critical of the Brigade's capacity to fight fires such as engulfed the wooden structure that was the Park Hotel. When the Stabroek News arrived on the scene on Saturday, the Bentick Wing was already engulfed in flames. There was no water being trained on it. The two tenders on the scene were on Main Street and the fire-fighters obviously could not put out the blaze or contain it with the equipment at their disposal. In one instance, the hose jumped out of the hands of the six or so fire-fighters who were manning it and they all scattered. Another fireman, obviously more experienced then crawled along the wildly gyrating hose while another went to turn off the water from the hydrant. An obviously knowledgeable bystander explained that if the hose had struck one of the firemen they could have been severely injured. The manager on duty at the time of the fire on Saturday, Thomas Munroe, who was alerted to the blaze by a female guard on duty said when he entered the lower common room of the hotel on the first floor he saw evidence of fire in the ceiling. The only possible sources of the fire were electrical wiring and the ceiling bulbs. Munroe said himself and another employee used fire extinguishers to douse the flames but by this time the housecleaning supervisor screamed out that there was fire in the room above the lower conference room. Aided by employees with two other extinguishers, Munroe said he rushed to the upper floor into the unused room which lies above the lower conference room and saw fire coming out of the floor. He said that efforts were directed at dousing this but in less than five minutes the flames were uncontrollable. By this time two fire tenders were on the scene and the in-house attempt to douse the blaze was abandoned and efforts were made to evacuate the building of its patrons and to save whatever could have been saved. The female security guard, Tulsidai Sukhdeo, who first thought she smelt baking at around 12.20 alerted Munroe to the much stronger smell of burning and went to secure the back gates of the hotel as she said persons from the area were trying to get into the yard and her concern was that items from the hotel could have been looted. Munroe said when Sukhdeo told him she suspected fire, his first thought was not the hotel but rather that something was being burnt outside. He said he went into the backyard to get a better perspective and then saw the smoke issuing from the Bentick Wing of the Hotel. He instructed Sukhdeo to call the fire engine. The Bentick and the Rosemary Wings of the hotel have been totally destroyed. The only structure still standing and habitable is the Martin Wing, which is currently waterlogged but with its roof and top floor destroyed. The ground and first floors are still more or less intact. The evacuation effort only saved some television sets and refrigerators.
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